Why does fluorination of hydrocarbons with pure F2 gas occur explosively?
Answer : Fluorination of hydrocarbons with pure fluorine gas occurs explosively. This is due to the following reasons:
- Due to low bond dissociation energy of F2 molecule (150.6 kJ mol−1).
- Due to strong exothermic nature of one of the termination steps.
The energy released in the above step is larger than needed to break a C−C bond (447 kj mol−1 released vs 347.3 kJ mol−1 needed) resulting in fission of the molecule.
However, it is possible to carry out direct fluorination of hydrocarbons by diluting F2 with an inert gas such as N2 or Ar.
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