Fluorocarbons for Sensing

Fluorous compounds are organic molecules with a high content of fluorine atoms within their structure and have much lower hydrophobicity compared to biological molecules. Perfluorinated compounds exhibit extremely low polarities and polarizabilities. The symmetric shape of these molecules and the strong electronegativity of the fluorine atoms result in small permanent dipole moments and in the extremely low polarizability of the C-F bond, respectively. These compounds have such low polarizablity and polarity that they are not only immiscible with water but also with many lipophilic compounds such as hydrocarbons. The term “fluorous” is often used to differentiate these compounds from other organic compounds. Fluorous compounds are both hydrophobic and lipophobic. Because they are lipophobic, fluorocarbons do not dissolve biological molecules and do not damage living beings and biological tissue. Because of high solubility of oxygen in fluorocarbons, you can keep a mouse in fluorocarbon for quite some time without any damage to the mouse.