Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Fluorine is the most reactive element. Its reactivity makes possible to prepare small, structurally simple molecules that would be unstable without the presence of the element fluorine. Basic studies of molecular structures help chemists check the validity of theories; theories that are applied to a host of practical problems, from new materials to pharmaceuticals. The proposed research will involve the preparation of novel compounds that have sulfur and fluorine surrounding a central metal atom. These so-called sulfide fluorides are the starting point for the study of their reaction chemistry. Since sulfur complexes are found in biological systems, such as ferredoxins, the influence of fluorine on the nature of those sulfur complexes will be investigated. The potential use of sulfide fluorides is as catalysts in the petroleum industry. The combination of these sulfide fluorides with other metal cations is expected to result in larger aggregations. If it is possible to increase their size, these compounds could be used as materials. The utilization of sulfide fluorides as fluorination agents will be studied and may result in their use in the pharmaceutical industry to prepare fluorinated drugs, such as 5-fluorouracil as a drug against breast cancer and the antidepressants fluoxetine and paroxetine, which have been proven to possess remarkable potencies. These inorganic sulfide fluorides will be characterized, among other means, by NMR spectroscopy in the solid state. This characterization technique is still in its infancies for fluorine-containing compounds. The proposal pursues the extension of solid-state NMR spectroscopy to a large variety of inorganic fluorine compounds.