Fluorination
From Soft-Matter
Definition
Fluorination is the chemical process of adding the element fluorine into a molecule. Fluorine has atomic number 9 and is in group 17, the halogens. Fluorination is a kind of halogenation.
Applications
- Fluorinating a surface or applying a fluorinated coating lowers the surface energy and makes the surface more hydrophobic. Desbief et. al. [reference] discuss this idea in terms of polymer coatings, "introduction of fluorine atoms substantially reduces the surface energy of the polymer film."
- Many companies make fluorinated plastic containers which are less permeable than simple HDPE containers.
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