The introduction of fluorine into organic molecules is widely practised particularly when tuning the properties of molecules for specialist functions. Fluorine substitution finds a prominent role in pharmaceutical development, in governing bioactivity in a wide range of agrochemical products, in soft materials chemistry such as liquid crystals, in photoresist polymers, self assembling monolayers and in positron emission tomography. Allied to this breadth of activity is a steady development in the number and range of fluorination reagents and methods. The changes in behaviour of a molecule after the introduction of a fluorine atom continue to be unpredictable, and understanding such behaviour remains a driver in organo-fluorine research. Contributions to this series come from an international grouping of noted experts in fluorine chemistry, covering a wide range of topics, including the chemistry of trifluoromethyl compounds, the enantioselective synthesis of organo-fluorine compounds, the synthesis of fluorinated derivatives of natural products and the preparation of organo-fluorine compounds by Michael addition.

See also the Thematic Series:
Organo-fluorine chemistry III
Organo-fluorine chemistry II

See organo-fluorine videos at Beilstein TV.