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Sulfuryl chloride fluoride (SO2ClF) is a strong Lewis acid and a useful solvent and reagent. As shown in the hazard information table, it must be handled with care. Its boiling point is in the range that allows its use as a gas or a liquid.
In the 1930s, Harold Simmons Booth* and Carl V. Herrmann at Western Reserve University (Cleveland; later Case Western Reserve University) performed . They synthesized it via the reaction of sulfuryl chloride (SO2Cl2) and antimony trifluoride (SbF3) in the presence of antimony pentachloride (SbCl5). They also measured several properties of SO2ClF, including boiling point, melting point, liquid density, vapor pressure from 鈥�89 to +9 潞C, heat of vaporization, and surface tension.
But the real champion of SO2ClF was the 1994 chemistry Nobelist George A. Olah. In 1967, also at Case Western, Olah and Joachim Lukas used the solvent system SO2ClF鈥揻luorosulfonic acid (FSO3H)鈥揳ntimony pentafluoride (SbF5) to (now called carbocations)鈥攆rom simple ones such as Me3C+ and Me2EtC+ through cations containing as many as nine carbon atoms. Acid mixtures like the ones they used came to be known as superacids.
In 1976, Olah, Mark R. Bruce, and John Welch developed an by adding SO2Cl2 to pyridinium poly(hydrogen fluoride) under mild conditions. By the early 1980s, now at the University of Southern California (Los Angeles), Olah and co-workers developed SO2ClF as a versatile reagent. Some SO2ClF applications include
- a dehydrating agent for converting aldoximes to nitriles;
- in combination with triethylamine, a reagent for making amides from carboxylic acids and primary amines and esters from carboxylic acids and alcohols;
- in combination with sulfur trioxide, an oxidant for converting tertiary phosphines and arsines to their corresponding oxides; and
- in combination with SO2Cl2, a reagent for converting enol silyl ethers to 伪-chloro ketones.
Finally, in 1992, V. Prakash Reddy, Donald R. Bellew, and G. K. Surya Prakash* at USC reported of SO2ClF, from SO2Cl2 and ammonium or potassium fluoride in the presence of trifluoroacetic acid. Surya Prakash was a student of Olah and is his successor as the director of USC鈥檚 Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute, the location of much of Olah鈥檚 carbocation research.
Sulfuryl chloride fluoride hazard information
Hazard class** | Hazard statement | |
---|---|---|
Gases under pressure, liquefied gas | H280鈥擟ontains gas under pressure; may explode if heated | ![]() |
Acute toxicity, oral, category 3 | H301鈥擳oxic if swallowed聽 | ![]() |
Acute toxicity, dermal, category 3 | H311鈥擳oxic in contact with skin | ![]() |
Skin corrosion/irritation, category 1B | H314鈥擟auses severe skin burns and eye damage | ![]() |
Serious eye damage/eye irritation, category 1 | H318鈥擟auses serious eye damage | ![]() |
Acute toxicity, inhalation, category 3 | H331鈥擳oxic if inhaled | ![]() |
Specific target organ toxicity, single exposure, respiratory tract irritation, category 3 | H335鈥擬ay cause respiratory irritation | ![]() |
Simple asphyxiation, category 1 | H380鈥擬ay displace oxygen and cause rapid suffocation | ![]() |
*Compilation of multiple safety data sheets.
**Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals.聽聽
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Sulfuryl chloride fluoride聽fast facts
CAS Reg. No. | 13637-84-8 |
nomenclature | Sulfuryl chloride fluoride |
Empirical formula | ClFO2S |
Molar mass | 118.52 g/mol |
Appearance | Colorless gas or colorless to light yellow liquid |
Melting point | 7.1 潞C |
Water solubility | Reacts |
MOTW update
cis,trans-Nepetalactone was the Molecule of the Week for February 15, 2010. It is the primary psychoactive ingredient in catnip (Nepeta cataria). In 2009, it was the starting material for synthesizing (+)-englerin A, a promising kidney cancer drug candidate.
It has long been known that catnip repels mosquitoes; but until this year, the repellence mechanism was unknown. Marcus Stensmyr and co-workers at Lund University (Sweden) discovered that nepetalactone activates a receptor in mosquitoes that . Cats, among many other animals, have the same receptor; but clearly the effect is different for them.

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