Development of ¹⁹F-detected 1,1-ADEQUATE for the characterization of polyfluorinated and perfluorinated compounds

Polyfluorinated and perfluorinated compounds in the environment are a growing health concern. ¹⁹F-detected variants of commonly employed heteronuclear shift correlation experiments such as heteronuclear single quantum correlation (HSQC) and heteronuclear multiple bond correlation (HMBC) are available; ¹⁹F-detected experiments that employ carbon–carbon homonuclear coupling, in contrast, have never been reported. Herein, we report the measurement of the ¹J_CC and ⁿJ_CC coupling constants of a simple perfluorinated phthalonitrile and the first demonstration of a ¹⁹F-detected 1,1-ADEQUATE experiment.