Progressive Hydrophobicity of Fluorobenzenes
Anuj Kumar1,2, Jaladhar Mahato1, Mayank Dixit1
1Department of Chemistry , Indian Institute of Technology Bombay , Powai, Mumbai 400076 India.
Abstract:
The potentials of mean force for the dimers of fluorobenzenes sample both π-stacked and T-shaped structures for partially fluorinated benzenes, namely, 1,4-difluorobenzene, 1,3,5-trifluorobenzene, and 1,2,4,5-tetrafluorobenzene, and sample only the T-shaped structures for benzene and hexafluorobenzene. While the free energy for the dimerization in water is very weakly dependent on the number of fluorine atoms, the formation of π-stacked structures is entropy-driven and the T-shaped structures appear due to an enthalpic minimum. Interestingly, the solvation behavior suggests that the accumulation of water around the contact and solvent-separated pairs decreases with the increase in the number of fluorine atoms, which signifies progressive hydrophobicity of fluorobenzenes.
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