Heptafluorobutyric acid (HFBA) is an organofluorine compound

Organofluorine chemistry

Organofluorine chemistry describes the chemistry of organofluorine compounds, organic compounds that contain the carbon–fluorine bond. Organofluorine compounds find diverse applications ranging from oil- and water-repellents to pharmaceuticals, refrigerants and reagents in catalysis...

 with the formula

Chemical formula

A chemical formula or molecular formula is a way of expressing information about the atoms that constitute a particular chemical compound....

 C₃F₇CO₂H. As the fluorinated derivative of butyric acid

Butyric acid

Butyric acid , also known under the systematic name butanoic acid, is a carboxylic acid with the structural formula CH3CH2CH2-COOH. Salts and esters of butyric acid are known as butyrates or butanoates...

, this colourless liquid is prepared by electrofluorination of the corresponding butyryl fluoride.

Applications

HFBA has a variety of niche applications in analytical and synthetic chemistry. It is an ion pair reagent for reverse-phase HPLC. It is used in the sequencing, synthesis, and solubilizing of proteins and peptides.

Esters derived from HFBA readily undergo condensation, owing to their electrophilicity. Specialized ligands for metal ions are generated capitalizing on this property, such as Eufod

Eufod

EuFOD is the chemical compound with the formula Eu3, also called Eu3. This coordination compound is used primarily as a shift reagent in NMR spectroscopy...

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