The Polar Hydrophobicity of Fluorinated Compounds

Fluorine's peculiar property: The CF bond is marked by a peculiar combination of polarity on nonpolarizability (hardness); this imbues fluorinated compounds with polar hydrophobicity. This property, whereby desolvation of fluorinated surfaces and weak dipolar interactions in organized media drive molecular recognition (see schematic representation), is argued to be a useful design principle and a likely explanation for the abundance of fluorinated compounds in medicinal chemistry.