Swarts Reaction

Swarts reaction [′svärts rē‚ak·shən]

(organic chemistry)

The reaction of chlorinated hydrocarbons with metallic fluorides to form chlorofluorohydrocarbons, such as CCl₂F₂, which is quite inert and nontoxic.

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Swarts Reaction 

the replacement in organic compounds of, most often, chlorine by fluorine through the action of antimony trifluoride (SbF₃). The reaction is usually carried out in the presence of Sb salts in which antimony displays an oxidation state of +5. Examples of the products obtained through this process are seen in the following reactions:

CCl₄ → CF₂ Cl₂ + CFCl₃

CHCl₃ → CHFCl₂ + CHF₂Cl

CCl₃CCl₃ → CFCl₂ - CFCl₂ + CFCl₂ - CF₂ Cl

C₆H₅ CCl₃ → C₆H₅CF₃

The Swarts reaction is used in laboratory work. A variant of the reaction—fluorination using anhydrous hydrogen fluoride (HF) in the presence of catalytic quantities of Sb salts in which antimony displays oxidation states of + 3 and + 5—has industrial importance and is used in the production of Freons. The reaction was discovered and refined by the Belgian chemist F. Swarts in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.