Oxygen difluoride


Oxygen difluoride is the chemical compound with the formula OF2. As predicted by VSEPR theory, the molecule adopts a "bent" molecular geometry similar to that of water, but it has very different properties, being a strong oxidizer.

Preparation

Oxygen difluoride was first reported in 1929; it was obtained by the electrolysis of molten potassium fluoride and hydrofluoric acid containing small quantities of water. The modern preparation entails the reaction of fluorine with a dilute aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide, with sodium fluoride as a side-product:

Reactions

Its powerful oxidizing properties are suggested by the oxidation number of +2 for the oxygen atom instead of its normal −2. Above 200 °C, OF2 decomposes to oxygen and fluorine via a radical mechanism.
OF2 reacts with many metals to yield oxides and fluorides. Nonmetals also react: phosphorus reacts with OF2 to form PF5 and POF3; sulfur gives SO2 and SF4; and unusually for a noble gas, xenon reacts, at elevated temperatures, yielding XeF4 and xenon oxyfluorides.
Oxygen difluoride reacts very slowly with water to form hydrofluoric acid:
It can oxidize sulphur dioxide to sulfur trioxide and elemental fluorine:
However, in the presence of UV radiation the products are sulfuryl fluoride,, and pyrosulfuryl fluoride, :

Safety

Oxygen difluoride is considered an unsafe gas due to its oxidizing properties.

Popular culture

In Robert L. Forward's science fiction novel Camelot 30K, oxygen difluoride was used as a biochemical solvent by fictional life forms living in the solar system's Kuiper belt. While would be a solid at 30 K, the fictional alien lifeforms were described as endothermic, maintaining elevated body temperatures and liquid blood by radiothermal heating.