Derivation of activation energies from experiments on chemical activation of alkyl fluorides

Chemical activation results from sixteen alkyl fluorides from n-propyl to 1,1,1-trifluoropropane have been treated by the RRKM theory. Critical energies for hydrogen halide elimination have been predicted from this treatment and compared where possible with thermal activation energies. Satisfactory agreement is obtained for a number of molecules. It is suggested that it is possible to predict critical energies for elimination from chemical activation results by this method. Alternatively known activation energies can be used to obtain information on the thermochemistry of the chemically activated molecules.