Trifluoroacetic acid

Description

Trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) is a strong organic acid typically used as a solvent or acid catalyst. TFA is the CF3 analogue of acetic acid (AcOH) which due to the electron withdrawing effect of the fluorine atoms is much more acidic than AcOH. The pKa of TFA is 0.23, compared to a pKa of 4.76 for AcOH. The low boiling point (bp = 72 C) of TFA facilitates simpler product isolation due to the fact that it can be removed via concentration on rotovap.

The Uses of Trifluoroacetic acid

Trifluoroacetic acid is an important building block in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and performance products. It is a precursor to many fluorinated compounds, and widely used in peptide synthesis and other organic transformations involving deprotection of t-BOC group. The combination of properties like solubility in most of the solvents, volatility, catalytic property, and strong acidity with non-oxidizing nature makes it a widely used reagent in organic synthesis. Trifluoroacetic acid can use as an ion pairing agent in liquid chromatography, as a solvent in NMR spectroscopy and as a calibrant in mass spectrometry. It is used as a catalyst in esterification reaction and condensation reaction and a protective agent for hydroxyl and amino.

What are the applications of Application

Trifluoroacetic acid is a strong non-oxidizing acid