Structure and thermal stability of difluoroamino compounds in the liquid state

The kinetics of decomposition of 15 difluoroamino compounds with NF₂ groups at primary, secondary, and tertiary carbon atoms in the liquid state was investigated. Activation energies (E_a) for all of the compounds were in the interval 100–120 kJ · mol^–1. The reaction rate does not depend on the electronic effects of the substituents and decreases only in the case of steric shielding of the NF₂ group. ForN-difluorobenzylamine it was shown that the gas-phase elimination of HF is characterized byE = 176 kJ·mole^–1, while the rate of decomposition in a solution depends on the dielectric constant of the medium. Based on the results obtained, a mechanism for liquid-phase decomposition, which involves heterolysis of the N-F bonds, is suggested.Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 2, pp. 336–338, February, 1994.