Copper(I) fluoride or cuprous fluoride is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula CuF. Its existence is uncertain. It was reported in 1933 to have a sphalerite-type crystal structure.[3] Modern textbooks state that CuF is not known,[4] since fluorine is so electronegative that it will always oxidise copper to its +2 oxidation state.[5]Complexes of CuF such as [(Ph3P)3CuF] are, however, known and well characterised.[6]
Synthesis and reactivity
Unlike other copper(I) halides like copper(I) chloride, copper(I) fluoride tends to disproportionate into copper(II) fluoride and copper in a one-to-one ratio at ambient conditions, unless it is stabilised through complexation as in the example of [Cu(N2)F].[7]
^Gulliver, D. J.; Levason, W.; Webster, M. (1981). "Coordination Stabilised Copper(I) Fluoride. Crystal and Molecular Structure of Fluorotris(triphenylphosphine)copper(I)·Ethanol (1/2), Cu(PPh3)3F·2EtOH". Inorg. Chim. Acta. 52: 153–159. doi:10.1016/S0020-1693(00)88590-4.
^Francis, Simon G.; Matthews, Steven L.; Poleshchuk, Oleg Kh; Walker, Nicholas R.; Legon, Anthony C. (2006-09-25). "N2-Cu-F: A Complex of Dinitrogen and Cuprous Fluoride Characterized by Rotational Spectroscopy". Angewandte Chemie. 118 (38): 6489–6491. doi:10.1002/ange.200601988. PMID16937427.