From: TILAK CHANDRA <0000058f112ac338-dmarc-request**At_Symbol_Here**LISTS.PRINCETON.EDU>
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Tetrabutylammonium Fluoride-Nasty, but Not Nasty Like HF?
Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2021 14:48:07 +0000
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU>
Message-ID: CH2PR06MB661497E4E59623F43D1609B7887D9**At_Symbol_Here**CH2PR06MB6614.namprd06.prod.outlook.com
In-Reply-To


I will recommend conducting a SciFinder search on the substrate when using TBAF as a reagent for a chemical transformation. There will be a huge difference in reactivity between HF and TBAF with different substrates. Anhydrous TBAF behaves not only as a potent source of nucleophilic fluoride but also as a potent base.  

 

The following recent safety articles can be sources for the students to design the experiments and find suitable safety information when using the TBAF for chemical manipulations. 

 

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.chas.0c00008 

Lessons Learned?Fluoride Exposure 

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.chas.9b00015 

 

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.chas.0c00108 

 

Good luck. 

 

Tilak 



From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU> on behalf of Margaret Rakas <mrakas**At_Symbol_Here**SMITH.EDU>
Sent: Monday, March 29, 2021 2:32 PM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU>
Subject: [DCHAS-L] Tetrabutylammonium Fluoride-Nasty, but Not Nasty Like HF?
 
Hi all-

We have a student project for advanced synthesis whose design include tetrabutylammonium fluoride (20-30%) in THF..  The SDS from the vendor, a large, trusted chem/bio supply company, plus checking on PubChem, indicates that while this is a corrosive (especially to eyes) and a health hazard, there is not the warning text that accompanies hydrofluoric acid or even ammonium fluoride-no indication for treatment with calcium gluconate gel.

Now I trust this company's SDS but given it's a fluoride compound, checked what I could and found corroboration of the hazard but no first aid requiring calcium gluconate.  Can anyone explain why this material isn't quite as bad as HF or ammonium fluoride?  Is it hindrance in penetrating bone from the tetrabutyl group or the low-ish percentage of the tetrabutylammonium fluoride in the solution or ???

thank you all!
Margaret

--
Margaret A. Rakas, Ph.D.
Lab Safety & Compliance Director
Clark Science Center
413-585-3877 (p)

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