A CNDO/2 investigation of the CH3/CF3 substitution effect

The variation of the A-C bond lengths with substitution of methyl by perfluoromethyl in molecules of the kind A(CH₃ )_n is investigated using the CNDO/2 method. Calculations were performed with A as fluorine, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur and phosphorous and n = 1, 2 or 3. The variation of the A-C bond length can be explained qualitatively by combining two effects, (1) changes in the covalent bond order and (2) changes in the ionic bond strength. While the covalent bond order decreases in all cases, the extent of the decrease depending largely on the electronegativity of A, the ionic bond order increases for fluorine, oxygen, nitrogen and sulphur and decreases in the case of phosphorous. The variations in the ionic bond strength are found to depend on the electronegativity of A as well as on the number of substituted methyl groups.