The photolysis of 1,1,3,3-tetrafluoroacetone has been reinvestigated as a source of CHFz radicals at temperatures up to 578'K, and the following rate constant ratio was determined for the reactions (8) (7)2CHF2 -+ CHFzCHFz* CHFz + CHFzCOCHFz -+ CHzFz + CF~COCHFZ log (k~/k~1'2)(mole-1'zcc1'2sec-1'2) = (4.73 f 0.18) -(11.26 f 0.40)/8* 1,l-Difluoro-and 1,1,3,3-tetrafluoroacetone were photolyzed in the presence of tetramethylsilane, and Arrhenius parameters were measured for the hydrogen abstraction re- By comparing with previous data on the CH3 and CF, reactions, the activation energies were interpreted in terms of the enthalpy changes for the reactions and a polar effect operative between the attacking fluoromethyl radicals and the substrate which tends to reduce the activation energy progressively as the fluorine content of the radical increases. This polar effect, which decreases the activation energy for hydrogen abstraction from SiMed along the series CH3, CHzF, CHFs, and CF3, is in marked contrast to the polar repulsion between the fluorinated radicals and SiHCls which was tentatively proposed to explain the increase in activation energy observed in the same series of reactions with SiHC13.* 8 = 2.303 RT in kcal/rnole.
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