L'innovation

Catalyzed fluorination by HF in gas phase is largely operated at the industrial scale. Indeed fluorinated materials and fluorinated molecules have become essential in the chemical industry. It is used for pharmaceutical applications (active ingredients, imagery), energy (nuclear combustible enrichment, battery components, electrolytes) and polymers (PTFE, ...). Current industrial processes require large amounts of organic solvents, involve toxic reagents and generate large volumes of effluents. They are poorly selective and reactivity is limited. Clearly, new fluorination methods are needed, which would be more efficient, selective and sustainable.

Mesoporous inorganic fluorides are innovative catalysts appropriate for the Cl/F exchange process used for fluorination reactions. Their porosity allows a high surface area, increasing the number of active sites. Moreover they are more stable than nanofluorides. These porous materials are obtained thanks to a hard-templating method combining a polymer template (PMMA for instance) and preformed MgF2 nanoparticles. The organic template is removed by chemical or thermal treatment living a material with a surface area of 150 m²/g, a porosity between 6 to 50 nm and with a fluorination catalytic activity.

Current trials are scheduled to establish a catalyst library for various fluorination reactions and to scale-up the manufacturing of mesoporous fluorides for industrial applications.