Acidity of saturated (hetero)cyclic α-fluoro carboxylic acids and lipophilicity of their amide derivatives

Abstract

Analysis of the physicochemical parameters of saturated (hetero)cyclic carboxylic acids and their α-fluorinated analogues is described. Measured pKa values revealed a significant influence of the single fluorine substituent on the compound's acidity (pKa decreased by 1.3–2.4 units). This effect did not demonstrate additivity with electronic effects of other heteroatom (i.e., cyclic ether moiety). On the contrary, lipophilicity (LogP) of the corresponding anilides was almost unaffected upon α-substitution with a fluorine atom and mainly governed by the nature of the (hetera)cycloalkyl substituent. The obtained results suggest that polarization of the C–F bonds themselves does not define the fluorine effect on the compound's lipophilicity.