The chemistry of perfluoro-4-isopropylpyridine

The research described within this thesis may be divided into three main subject areas: 1) Perfluoro-4-isopropylpyridine (1) has been synthesised efficiently by reaction between pentafluoropyridine and hexafluoropropene in the presence of an amine initiator tetrakis-(dimethylamino)ethene (TDAE). A variety of oxygen and nitrogen centred nucleophiles were successfully reacted with (1) to afford a range of model compounds for highly fluorinated macrocycles.2) Perfluorocarbon soluble macrocycles have been prepared from (1) and the coordination properties of these systems have been determined by metal ion extraction techniques.3) Bromination of (1) gave the synthetically versatile derivative, 2,6-dibromo- perfluoro-4-isopropylpyridine (37), from which a range of highly substituted pyridine compounds were derived.