Formation of spiro and ansa derivatives in the reaction of 2,2,3,3,4,4-hexafluoropentane-1,5-diol with cyclotriphosphazene: Comparison with 2,2,3,3-tetrafluorobutane-1,4-diol

Reaction of cyclophosphazene, N₃P₃Cl₆ (1), with the sodium derivative of the fluorinated diol, 2,2,3,3,4,4-hexafluoropentane-1,5-diol (2), in THF solution at room temperature afforded five isolated products, whose structures have been characterised by X-ray crystallography and ¹H, ¹⁹F and ³¹P NMR spectroscopy: the mono-spiro compound, N₃P₃Cl₄(OCH₂CF₂CF₂CF₂CH₂O) (3), its ansa isomer (4), a di-spiro derivative N₃P₃Cl₂(OCH₂CF₂CF₂CF₂CH₂O)₂ (5), its spiro-ansa (6) isomer and the tri-spiro compound N₃P₃(OCH₂CF₂CF₂CF₂CH₂O)₃ (7). Quantitative ³¹P NMR measurements of the soluble portion of the reaction mixture show that in the reaction of (1) with the sodium derivative of the fluorinated pentanediol (2) there is a small preference for spiro compounds compared to ansa compounds (ratio ca. 1.3:1), similar to the analogous reaction of (1) with the sodium derivative of the fluorinated butanediol where there is a slightly greater proportion of spiro compared to ansa compounds (ratio ca. 1.5:1). The relative proportions of spiro and ansa compounds is likely to depend on the fine balance in stabilities of the different medium-sized rings in the fluorinated pentanediol (spiro, 8- and ansa, 10-membered rings) compared to the fluorinated butanediol (spiro, 7- and ansa, nine-membered rings) derivatives of cyclophosphazene.