In this handbook, Peer Kirsch clearly shows that this exciting field is no longer an exotic area of research. Aimed primarily at synthetic chemists wanting to gain a deeper understanding of the fascinating implications of including the highly unusual element fluorine in organic compounds, the main part of the book presents a wide range of synthetic methodologies and the experimental procedures selected undeniably show that this can be done with standard laboratory equipment. To round off, the author looks at fluorous chemistry and the applications of organofluorine compounds in liquid crystals, polymers and more besides. This long-awaited book represents an indispensable source of high quality information for everyone working in the field.

The substitution of fluorine in an organic molecule increases its chemical stability and changes its reactivity, sometimes leading to substantially more effective medicines, pesticides, and herbicides. This book collects current work on the synthesis of these compounds.

The book contains 30 top-notch chapter-reviews on recent methodological developments in the area of synthetic fluoro-organic chemistry, Fluorous technology, and biological applications of fluorinated compounds. Special emphases are given to the synthesis of biologically relevant compounds (alcohols, amines, alpha- and beta-amino acids, peptides), industrial-scale production of highly versatile, synthetically useful fluorinated synthons, as well Fluorous technology. The book has been designed to be a comprehensive snap-shot of current research activity in the field reviewed by internationally renowned leading experts from academic and industrial laboratories around the world. The topics covered in the book range from synthesis of small fluorinated molecules to peptides and macromolecules for crystal engineering. Substantial amount of data reviewed in the book have never been published. In particular cutting-age Fluorous technology, summarized in the book, will give the reader unprecedented prospective on new separation methods which will be on market in the nearest future. Taking into account the significant impact that fluorinated compounds have made on nearly all aspects of modern life this book is expected to be a current prime reference in the field and might be of interest to diverse readership.

Recently there has been a tremendous growth in the chemistry of fluoroorganic compounds, which find wide applicatiori in various fields of technique and are used to solve some basic theoretical problems. The chemical properties of these compounds are rather specific, as well as the methods for their preparation. We realized that no good handbooks on the preparation offluoro organic compounds were available, whereas the methods of pre paration are scattered in numerous scientific papers and patents. Even such a well-known publication as Organic Syntheses contains just a few methods of preparation of fluoroorganic compounds. As a consequence, not only for newcomers but even for specialists, searching for simple and convenient methods for the preparation of the required compounds is tedious. To alleviate the problem, we undertook to prepare this book, which presents detailed preparation methods of more than 300 flu oro organic compounds. Emphasis has been laid on syntheses of polyfluorinated compounds, since they are of major interest with respect to preparation and utility. Preparation of fluoroorganic compounds is based both on the classical methods of organic chemistry and on the specific ones, which is due to the difficulty or even impossibility of the direct introduction of fluorine into a definite position of organic mole cule. Most organic compounds of fluorine are prepared by a suc cession of conversions of a relatively small number of starting compounds.