Fluorine-19 NMR spectroscopy, even at temperatures as low as −100 °C, fails to distinguish the axial from the equatorial fluorine environments. The apparent equivalency arises from the low barrier for pseudorotation via the Berry mechanism, by which the axial and equatorial fluorine atoms rapidly exchange positions. The apparent equivalency of the F centers in PF5 was first noted by Gutowsky.[3] The explanation was first described by R. Stephen Berry, after whom the Berry mechanism is named. Berry pseudorotation influences the 19F NMR spectrum of PF5 since NMR spectroscopy operates on a millisecond timescale. Electron diffraction and X-ray crystallography do not detect this effect as the solid state structures are, relative to a molecule in solution, static and can not undergo the necessary changes in atomic position.
Lewis acidity
Phosphorus pentafluoride is a Lewis acid. This property is relevant to its ready hydrolysis. A well studied adduct is PF5 with pyridine. With primary and secondary amines, the adducts convert readily to dimeric amido-bridged derivatives with the formula [PF4(NR2)]2. A variety of complexes are known with bidentate ligands.[4]
^ abKwasnik, W. (1963). "Phosphorus(V) fluoride". In Brauer, G. (ed.). Handbook of Preparative Inorganic Chemistry. Vol. 1 (2nd ed.). New York: Academic Press. p. 190.
^Gutowsky, H. S.; McCall, D. W.; Slichter, C. P. (1953). "Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Multiplets in Liquids". J. Chem. Phys.21 (2): 279. doi:10.1063/1.1698874.
^Wong, Chih Y.; Kennepohl, Dietmar K.; Cavell, Ronald G. (1996). "Neutral Six-Coordinate Phosphorus". Chemical Reviews. 96 (6): 1917–1952. doi:10.1021/cr9410880. PMID11848816.