Organomercury Compounds. 32. Syntheses of Fluorophenylmercurials by Decarboxylation

The organomercury compounds HgR 2 (R = 2‐Cl,6‐FC 6 H 3 , 2,6‐F 2 C 6 H 3 , 2,3,6‐F 3 C 6 H 2 , m ‐HC 6 F 4 , p ‐HC 6 F 4 , or C 6 F 5 ) and RHg(O 2 CR) (R = 2‐Cl,6‐C 6 H 3 , 2,6‐F 2 C 6 H 3 or 2,3,6‐F 3 C 6 H 2 ) have been obtained in moderate – good and low yields respectively from decarboxylation reactions of the corresponding mercury(II) fluorobenzoates in boiling pyridine. By contrast, mercury(II) 2,3,4‐5‐tetrafluorobenzoate gave a low yield of CO 2 , a trace of Hg( o ‐HC 6 F 4 ) 2 and a very low yield of o ‐HC 6 F 4 Hg(O 2 CC 6 F 4 H‐ o ). The 199 Hg NMR spectra of the diorganomercurials (R = 2‐Cl,6‐FC 6 H 3 , 2,6‐F 2 C 6 H 3 , 2,3,6‐F 3 C 6 H 2 , 2,4,6‐F 3 C 6 H 2 , 2,6‐Cl 2 C 6 H 3 , o ‐HC 6 F 4 , m ‐HC 6 F 4 , p ‐HC 6 F 4 or C 6 F 5 ) are discussed.