Increasing fluorous partition coefficients by solvent tuning.

Low partition coefficients of fluorous components have been a persistent problem in liquid-liquid separations using perfluoroalkanes as the fluorous phase. Solvent tuning of both the nonfluorous and the fluorous phase dramatically enhances the partitioning of light or polar fluorous molecules into the fluorous liquid phase, while minimally effecting partition coefficients of nonfluorous molecules. These findings suggest an expanded scope for liquid-based separations in fluorous biphasic catalysis, fluorous-tagged reagents, fluorous-supported oligomer synthesis, and related areas. [reaction: see text]