Probing Fluorine Interactions in a Polyhydroxylated Environment: Conservation of a C–F···H–C Recognition Motif in Presence of O–H···O Hydrogen Bonds (Eur. J. Org. Chem. 18/2010)

Abstract

AbstractThe cover picture shows, with a wordplay of the famous phrase “To be or not to be ?” from William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, the ambivalent nature of fluorine – the most electronegative element and known to form some of the strongest hydrogen bonds, as in [F–H···F]–. Notwithstanding this, “organic” fluorine makes some of the weakest hydrogen bonds (or none at all) known in molecular crystals. Our study, in this context, utilizes specially designed fluorinated polycyclitols to probe the capability of covalently bonded fluorine to engage itself in H‐bonding even in the presence of its isostere – the hydroxy group. Details are discussed in the article by G. Mehta and S. Sen on p. 3387 ff.