WHAT ARE FLUOROTELOMERS?

Fluorotelomers, with unbrancehed, strictly linear (terminal) perfluoroalkyl chains, are obtained by a technique known as telomerization. In this process, 3 - 6 tetrafluoroethylene units are added by reaction onto pentfluoroethyl iodide. The telomer is obtained in the form of a mixture of perfluoroalkyl iodides (=Rf - I) with different chain lengths. The graph below shows the typical homolog distribution of Rf - I

Additional refining steps are used to convert these long-chain perfluoroalkyl iodides into useful inetmediates, such as perfluoroalkylethyl iodides, perfluoroalkyl olefins, perfluoroalkylethyl alcohols or perfluoroalkylethyl acrylic and methacrylic esters.

Some of these intermediates are also available as compounds with a uniform length of chain.