JayGatsby - 7-7-2008 at 04:10
Preparing trifluoroacetic acid in an amateur setting, or even anywhere outside of an industrial context, is a daunting task indeed. I have surveyed
the literature and have attached many relevant journal articles. I have found one method in particular which seems promising, but I'll let you look at
them all and tell me what you think.
Trifluoroacetic acid is produced industrially by electrochemical fluorination of acetic acid with anhydrous HF (the Simons process). Though I have
attached several relevant PDF files about this process, I don't expect the Simons process will be of much practical use.
The best bet, I think, is the oxidation of 1,1,1-trifluoroethane at 15 kV AC as described in the first PDF. This fluorocarbon refrigerant is readily
available as R-143a. Water vapor is necessary in the mixture (12 mol air: 1 mol R-143a) or else the glass apparatus gets etched. The 15 kV AC is
easily produced by a neon sign transformer, however, glassblowing might be needed to get a similar apparatus to the one described. Do you think there
are any off the shelf components which could be put together nicely? The surface area of the electrode is critical but the shape doesn't matter much.
Your input would be appreciated. Please read the first PDF. Some of the others may by worth checking out too. I apologize for the poor automatic
formatting of the references below.
Title PREPARATION OF TRIFLUOROACETIC ACID
Author ALLEN, DR
Source JOURNAL OF ORGANIC CHEMISTRY,vol.26,no.3,pp.923-&,1961
[Edited on 7-7-2008 by JayGatsby]
Attachment: Preparation of trifluoroacetic acid.pdf (304kB)
This file has been downloaded 495 times
JayGatsby - 7-7-2008 at 04:12
Title IMPROVED PREPARATION OF TRIFLUOROACETIC ACID
Author HENNE, AL; TROTT, P
Source JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY,vol.69,no.7,pp.1820-1820,1947
Attachment: Improved Preparation of Trifluoroacetic Acid.pdf (133kB)
This file has been downloaded 767 times
JayGatsby - 7-7-2008 at 04:14
Title Conversion of CFC-13 to trifluoroacetic acid by electrochemical reaction with carbon dioxide
Author Sonoyama, N; Sakata, T
Source CHEMISTRY LETTERS,no.4,pp.444-445,2002
Title Electrochemical fluorination: state of the art and future tendences
Author Conte, Lino1; Gambaretto, GianPaolo2
Source Journal of Fluorine Chemistry, vol. 125, no. 2, pp. 139-144, February 2004
Attachment: Conversion of CFC-13 to Trifluoroacetic Acid.pdf (57kB)
This file has been downloaded 740 times
JayGatsby - 7-7-2008 at 04:15
Title PREPARATION OF POLYFLUORINATED ACIDS
Author HENNE, AL; ALDERSON, T; NEWMAN, MS
Source JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY,vol.67,no.6,pp.918-919,1945
Attachment: Preparation of Polyfluorinated Acids.pdf (272kB)
This file has been downloaded 535 times
JayGatsby - 7-7-2008 at 04:16
Title The actual state of our knowledge about mechanism of electrochemical fluorination in anhydrous hydrogen fluoride (Simons process)
Author Sartori, P.1; Ignat'ev, N.
Source Journal of Fluorine Chemistry, vol. 87, no. 2, pp. 157-162, February 1998
Attachment: the mechanism of the Simons process.pdf (694kB)
This file has been downloaded 2527 times
JayGatsby - 7-7-2008 at 04:18
Title Electrochemical fluorination: state of the art and future tendences
Author Conte, Lino1; Gambaretto, GianPaolo2
Source Journal of Fluorine Chemistry, vol. 125, no. 2, pp. 139-144, February 2004
Attachment: Electrochemical fluorination overview.pdf (112kB)
This file has been downloaded 1735 times