Research news on fluorine

Fluorine is a highly electronegative halogen element (atomic number 9) that plays a central role across multiple scientific topics, including inorganic, organic, and materials chemistry. Its extreme oxidizing power and small atomic radius profoundly influence bond polarity, acidity/basicity, and reactivity patterns in molecules and solid-state compounds. Fluorine substitution is widely exploited to modulate metabolic stability, lipophilicity, and binding affinity in pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals, and to tune electronic, optical, and thermal properties in polymers and functional materials. In catalysis and synthesis, fluorine-containing reagents and intermediates enable selective C–F bond formation and activation, impacting methodologies for constructing fluorinated architectures relevant to research and technology.

New data show reduced overall PFAS exposures in subarctic ocean

Beginning in the early 2000s, some of the most common and well-studied PFAS were phased out through a combination of industry shifts and international regulations. A new study from Harvard has found that since that phaseout, ...