Proton and fluorine magnetic resonance studies of some benzoyl fluoride derivatives. Sensitivity of the fluorine shifts to intramolecular van der Waals interactions and steric effects

The syntheses and the analyses of the high resolution proton and fluorine magnetic resonance spectra of the 3-fluoro-4-methyl-, 2-fluoro-5-chloro-, 2-fluoro-6-chloro-, 2,6-difluoro-, and of the pentafluorobenzoyl fluorides are reported. The spin–spin coupling constants over five bonds between the sidechain fluorine-19 and the ring protons are sensitive to intrinsic substituent perturbations. Their use in the deduction of conformational preferences is much more problematical than is the use of the corresponding proton–proton couplings in benzaldehyde derivatives. The 2-fluoro-6-chloro compound is nonplanar, as indicated by a finite magnitude of the long-range proton–fluorine coupling over six bonds. The nonplanarity is also indicated by a comparison of the through-space fluorine–fluorine coupling to those in the other compounds. The chemical shift of the sidechain fluorine moves to low field by over 35 ppm as the size of the two ortho substituents increases. The individual shifts are discussed in terms of intramolecular van der Waals interactions and of out-of-plane twisting of the COF group.