The reactions of alkali and ammonium bifluorides with aluminium and silicon were studied by DTA. Reaction temperatures were determined and reaction products identified. The reaction mechanism of the fluorinating reaction was established. Hydrofluorides appear very promising fluorinating agents.The fluorinating actions of elemental fluorine, halogen fluorides and hydrogen fluoride are well known and these compounds are widely applied for synthetizing inorganic fluorides [1 ]. Lately, however, interest in solid fluorinating agents has continually grown, since they possess many advantages. By way of example, silver difluoride [2], cobalt and manganese trifluorides [3][4][5], xenon fluoride [6] and alkali fluorohalogenates [7] can be mentioned.Much attention has been paid to ammonium bifluoride as a potential fluorinating agent, because the melting and evaporation temperatures of this compound are relatively low. The reactivity of NH4F " HF is close to that of anhydrous hydrofluoric acid and the compound can be successfully applied as a fluorinating agent in many reactions [1,[8][9][10]. It is obvious that other bifluorides are also suited for such purposes.In the present paper we wish to report studies on the reaction of alkali and ammonium bifluoiides with aluminium and silicon. The method used was differential thermal analysis and the reaction products were identified by X-ray phase analysis and thermal analysis. In reactions of metals with bifluorides, the thermal properties of the latter are very important. The thermal stabilities and decomposition kinetics of hydrofluorides were earlier studied by thermogravimetry [I 1, 12]. It was found that lithium and sodium bifluorides are decomposed before melting, whereas potassium, rubidium and caesium bifluorides first undergo polymorphous transformation on heating, and subsequently melt without perceptible decomposition. On further heating, hydrogen fluoride is evolved from the melt [12]. Ammonium bifluoride too melts without perceptible decomposition, and on further heating decomposes, hydrogen fluoride being split off.
ExperimentalAlkali and ammonium bifluorides were synthetized according to data on the HF-MF-H20 systems, and identified by methods of chemical, X-ray phase , L Thermal Anal. 5, 1973