The objective is to prepare chemically activated CF3CHCl2 from the combination of CF3 and CHCl2 radicals. CHCl2I was synthesized to use photocatalysis facilitated by Hg2I2 for generating the CHCl2 radical. The unimolecular decomposition reactions were qualified by identifying the products, and the rates of reaction will be quantified based on the ratio of decomposed products using a 2010 Shimadzu gas chromatograph mass spectrometer, GC-MS QP2010. The intent of this study is to expand data on the degradation reactions that hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) will undergo, as they are a commercially important class of greenhouse gases, which are in the process of being re-engineered to be more environmentally friendly. Understanding these reactions is key to the efficient recycling of HCFCs. To date, CF3CHCl2 (also called HCFC-123) has been formed by the aforementioned photolysis process, and identified. We have also confirmed that the :CClCF3 carbene, formed by the 1,1-HCl elimination reaction, can be trapped using either cis- or trans-2-butene. We have not been able to detect formation of CF2=CHCl from a 1,1-HF elimination reaction. Thus, it appears that the 1,1-HCl elimination pathway is overwhelmingly dominant compared to the 1,2-HF elimination pathway, but quantitative data derived from the rates of these reactions and computational work to predict threshold energies for each pathway is needed. This semester's work has been to investigate a side reaction resulting from trapping the :CClCF3 carbene with either cis- or trans-2-butene. The resultant three-membered ring is an unstudied novel system, and appears too complex to analyze directly, but comparison to similar known systems yields a theoretical interpretation.
