Chemistry has often thrived on the back of ionic compounds that promise more stable reactions, better yields, and novel reactivity—Tetrabutylammonium Tetrafluorophenylborate arrived as an answer for many chemists working with organometallic transformations and catalytic cycles. By looking back, the rise of onium salts came with the post-war boom in organometallic chemistry, and researchers found that swapping out counter-ions could dramatically change a reaction’s rate, outcome, and safety. Tetrabutylammonium salts became particularly popular in labs during the last four decades of the twentieth century. Tetrafluorophenylborate, with its electron-deficient aryl system, found a sweet spot as a non-coordinating anion for sensitive organometallic catalysts. Combining these two, researchers carved out a new class of stable, highly soluble salts with good shelf life and low hygroscopicity, allowing a new level of flexibility in synthesis design.
Tetrabutylammonium Tetrafluorophenylborate generally appears as a white or off-white crystalline powder. At room temperature, this salt handles well without caking and dissolves easily in solvents like acetonitrile, dichloromethane, or THF. In my years running multi-step reactions, compounds like this have saved time by letting me skip long drying phases or filtration through celite. Chemical suppliers tend to deliver this salt in tightly sealed glass bottles, often with a desiccant packet to keep any trace moisture out. Purity matters; commercial grades usually exceed 98%, making them reliable even for sensitive catalytic testing.
This salt owes much of its utility to its fine balance between lipophilicity from the tetrabutylammonium cation and the weakly coordinating, robust tetrafluorophenylborate anion. Melting points typically hover in the range of 150–160°C, giving it enough thermal stability for many applications. Solubility remains high for most organic solvents, and it offers an electrical neutrality that doesn't interfere with most sensitive tests or reactions. The chemical structure with its four butyl chains and aromatic borate anion leads to a compound that stands up under conditions that would wreck more basic salts.
Manufacturers list Tetrabutylammonium Tetrafluorophenylborate with detailed batch records including lot numbers, CAS numbers, and assay percentage. Labels on bottles prominently display hazard pictograms concerning skin and eye irritation, consistent with GHS standards worldwide. I’ve come to trust suppliers who also provide third-party analysis confirming both low moisture content and absence of residual starting materials. Package sizes run from a few grams for research labs up to kilos for pilot production, with each vial packed under nitrogen or argon for added shelf stability.
Labs prepare Tetrabutylammonium Tetrafluorophenylborate with a metathesis reaction involving tetrabutylammonium halide and sodium (or potassium) tetrafluorophenylborate in a suitable solvent, most often water or methanol. The technique remains straightforward: dissolve both starting salts, mix, then filter off the resulting sodium or potassium halide byproduct. The organic layer, rich in the target product, gets washed and dried before solvent removal. Recrystallization from acetonitrile or chloroform delivers a highly pure final salt. Those with good hands and steady patience can rack up grams per hour using this process without much equipment, a trait I always value for scaling on the fly.
Tetrabutylammonium Tetrafluorophenylborate acts primarily as an ion-exchange agent or phase-transfer catalyst. Its value shines in promoting reactions where other ionic salts either introduce water or coordinate too strongly with active metal complexes, causing catalyst poisoning or deactivation. For Suzuki or Stille cross-coupling, using this salt as a supporting electrolyte takes a lot of the guesswork out of maintaining catalyst performance. Modifying the structure typically involves swapping in different substitution patterns on the phenyl ring or using trialkylammonium analogs if a different solubility profile matters. Over the years, I've watched colleagues tweak related salts to solve solubility or stability issues in electro-catalytic systems.
Product literature often lists synonyms such as N,N,N,N-Tetrabutylammonium Tetrafluorophenylborate and TBA-TFPB. Trade references sometimes employ abbreviations like TBATFPB. CAS databases provide unique identifiers to avoid confusion with similar-looking salts like tetrabutylammonium tetrafluoroborate, which carries far different chemical behavior.
Good lab safety weighs heavily, and this salt is no exception. Although it poses less acute toxicity than many metal-based salts, handling it without gloves can trigger mild skin irritation, and dust inhalation can bother the respiratory tract. Fine, stable powders like this demand care during weighing or transfer—fume hoods and dust masks keep everyone healthy. Spills require cleanup with wet cloth to prevent airborne dust, and working with sealed containers limits accidental exposure. Disposal goes into halogen-containing organic solid waste streams under most university protocols, a small but essential detail to keep in mind for environmental compliance.
This compound sits in an interesting niche, showing up in organic synthesis, electrochemistry, and analytical testing. In the hands of synthetic chemists, its main draw comes from preventing catalyst deactivation in palladium- and nickel-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions. Analytical labs lean on Tetrabutylammonium Tetrafluorophenylborate as a background electrolyte for HPLC methods or for prepping ionic liquids that support ion-mobility mass spectrometry. Electrochemists find this salt outstanding as a supporting electrolyte, since it barely coordinates with working or counter electrodes. These applications mean the salt appears often in fields working to push boundaries in synthesis, analysis, and energy conversion.
Research on Tetrabutylammonium Tetrafluorophenylborate covers everything from new synthetic routes to compatibility with emerging green solvents. Chemists motivated by minimizing environmental footprints explore modifications that replace butyl chains with shorter or bio-based alkyl chains. Electrochemical research keeps turning up new uses for this salt, especially as batteries move toward organic electrolytes or “smart” liquid supports. Some teams look for faster, simpler crystallization routes, hoping to replace inch-by-inch solvent reduction with continuous flow or automated methods. It’s a familiar feeling in R&D: every improvement in yield or purity trickles down into easier, cheaper work at the bench.
So far, toxicity tests suggest Tetrabutylammonium Tetrafluorophenylborate does not behave like heavy-metal salts, and chronic toxicity in mammals hasn’t shown alarming results in controlled studies. But the lack of long-term data leaves a few unanswered questions—what happens with repeated low-level exposure, or if it enters aquatic ecosystems in meaningful quantities? My experience says it’s prudent not to treat any onium salt as harmless, and most institutions now enforce restrictions on large-scale use outside contained facilities. As toxicity research expands, regulators will likely ask for more study on breakdown products, environmental release, and chronic effects for workers handling kilos per month.
Advances on the horizon include new recipes for biodegradable ammonium salts, tweaking the phenylborate anion to reduce persistence if released outside lab settings, and more robust data on safe handling. Startups targeting organic flow batteries and solid-state ion devices look for supporting electrolytes with both performance and safety. Synthetic methodology stands to benefit from even smaller, more tunable onium salts with different arene-based anions, expanding the structure–function toolkit for future reaction design. As deeper understanding develops, better alternatives will likely share the bench with Tetrabutylammonium Tetrafluorophenylborate, letting chemists fine-tune reactions while holding safety and sustainability front and center.
Tetrabutylammonium tetrafluorophenylborate almost never comes up in regular conversation. Walk into a lab focused on organic synthesis or electrochemistry, though, and you’ll find plenty of professionals who know it well. This salt has a name that could trip up most folks, but for chemists, it carries a reputation for solving some tough technical problems.
If a lab cares about clean electrochemical reactions, tetrabutylammonium tetrafluorophenylborate steps up as a go-to supporting electrolyte. When I worked on organometallic systems, we needed an electrolyte that didn’t interfere with what we tried to measure. Many types of research fail because the electrolyte messes with sensitive compounds, causing confusing results. Tetrabutylammonium tetrafluorophenylborate keeps to itself, doesn’t bind with metal centers, and does not give up its ions during routine voltammetry. This creates a clean background.
People often compare it against common salts like tetrabutylammonium hexafluorophosphate. The difference? The tetrafluorophenylborate anion is less likely to participate in unwanted side reactions, giving more reliable currents. In the field, that trust in measurements saves hours of troubleshooting with contamination or side reaction issues.
Its unique properties also come through in synthesis, especially for ionic pairing or metathesis reactions. Some synthetic routes hinge on easily swapping out ions. Take it from someone who spent days purifying stubborn side-products: using a salt that dissolves perfectly in organic solvents helps clean up the process. Tetrabutylammonium is bulky and lipophilic. That trait means the whole molecule stays soluble in non-aqueous conditions, helping chemists move things along without clogging up their flasks with undissolved junk.
For transfer of boron or organometallic units, having a reliable, easy-to-filter anion makes life easier. Tetrafluorophenylborate rarely clings to product molecules, so purifications often go smoother. That’s a big deal if you’ve ever tried to separate a prized product from a sticky ionic mess.
The salt’s stability feels like a luxury for anyone frustrated with decomposing reagents. Tetrafluorophenylborate doesn’t get hydrolyzed by a few drops of water in the flask, unlike many common alternatives. Strong resistance to acids or oxidants means it manages to hold up in harsher setups, which opens the door for people experimenting with novel reaction conditions.
Researchers who work with sensitive catalysts or strong oxidizers have learned to trust this compound. The accuracy of their data depends on confidence that nothing left the salt behind in their measurements. Even though it shows up in low volumes, it plays a huge role. Studies from journals like the Journal of the American Chemical Society back up its use, showing improved yields and fewer side products when sensitive anions are required.
A downside hits anyone who tries to scale up: this salt isn’t cheap. More affordable supporting electrolytes dominate teaching labs and low-budget projects. To keep more labs using it, researchers might pool resources or coordinate bulk buying. Some companies could look into more efficient syntheses or recovery protocols for used salt. In practice, careful management and recycling make sure that the investment pays off.
At the heart of complex electrochemistry and synthesis, something as under-the-radar as tetrabutylammonium tetrafluorophenylborate can make or break progress. For chemists, picking the right supporting salt takes just as much strategy as designing a good reaction. This one keeps showing up because it delivers, even if most people never hear about it.
Tetrabutylammonium tetrafluorophenylborate brings together an organic cation and an inorganic anion, each with its own quirks. Its formula, C16H36N.C6BF4, spells out the story: a tetrabutylammonium ion pairs with a tetrafluorophenylborate counterion. Right away, solid chemistry knowledge unfolds—anyone who’s handled phase transfer catalysts or built sensitive ionic compounds will spot the usefulness here. This sort of complex shows up in settings from organic reactions to electrolyte chemistry, no small feat in both labs and manufacturing.
Understanding the molecular weight unlocks practical doors. For anyone measuring this compound for synthesis or preparing analytical standards, even small errors can cause headaches later. Direct calculation, using standard atomic weights, yields a total of 377.18 g/mol. Here’s how it breaks down:
Adding those values gives the 377.18 grams per mole figure. Many purchase orders, preparation documents, and safety data sheets carry this number, and the accuracy here affects everything from reagent ordering to precise stoichiometry.
It’s easy to gloss over molecular details. In the years working with ionic compounds, mistakes in recording weight or structure cause confusion, derail multi-step syntheses, and eat up lab budgets fast. Labs depending on careful measurements—pharmaceuticals, academic research, specialty manufacturing—demand reliable numbers. Without this, new products stumble before they start, reproducibility crashes, and trust between teams drops.
Mislabeling, outdated information, or simple typos hold up shipments and knock research off course. In more than one project, I’ve seen rushed procurement teams order the wrong salt based on a missing fluorine or swapped cation. The margin for error shrinks as projects get bigger. For safety, a mistaken identity means incorrect hazard warnings—sometimes escalating from handling annoyances to real risks for stored chemicals.
Experienced chemists double-check molecular information against trusted databases like PubChem and ChemSpider, especially in regulated industries or patent filings. For Tetrabutylammonium tetrafluorophenylborate, established sources confirm both the formula and weight. Sharing this information internally, paired with a CAS number and structural diagram, cuts confusion and speeds up project progress.
Ensuring everyone on the team understands these facts pays off in smoother synthesis planning and less waste. Standard operating procedures detail safe weighing—hinting at the hazard involved if fluorine compounds are mishandled. Proper labeling flows downstream, supporting training for new hires and compliance reviews. Experienced staff recognize the downstream risk of skipping these data checks.
Teams with limited resources or access often borrow standards from major suppliers or reach out to larger institutions for verification. Open communication with suppliers about batch specifics can catch mismatches early. In settings with expensive or time-consuming projects, an internal “certificate of analysis” review keeps costly errors at bay.
Those working in data management or compliance hone in on the importance of molecular weight and formula right alongside safety profiles and storage guidelines. In research, mentioning these details in publications builds transparency and replicability, strengthening trust in results long-term.
Tetrabutylammonium tetrafluorophenylborate’s real value comes through this shared diligence—across the chemical industry and scientific community.
I’ve spent enough years around labs to know mishandling specialty chemicals often leads to headaches, wasted money, and sometimes a mess nobody wants to clean up. Tetrabutylammonium tetrafluorophenylborate sits among those uncommon compounds that call for respect in storage. Its structure, with both organic and inorganic features, brings a risk of chemical instability if left in the wrong place.
Tetrabutylammonium tetrafluorophenylborate doesn’t appreciate humidity. Just a little water vapor can trigger decomposition or at least start the process, creating impurities that throw off sensitive chemistry and cost real dollars in materials and lost time. That’s not a rare incident—accidentally leaving a jar open during a busy day can do the trick. I’ve had to explain lost samples more than once when moisture found its way in.
Room temperature isn’t always a safe bet. Most suppliers ship this compound with a label saying to store it at 2–8°C. Put it in a refrigerator meant for chemicals, not the one at home. At this range, the product keeps its shelf life. Higher temperatures push it to break down faster. Any scientist who ever grabbed reagents from a warm shelf knows that story ends with failed reactions.
Not every lab fridge pairs up with dry air, though. That’s where a desiccator steps in. Over the years, I’ve learned that putting compounds like this with a silica gel pouch or another desiccant inside a sealed container stops outside moisture.
You’d think only sunlight ruins food and medicine, but light can also chip away at the stability of fine chemicals. Storing bottles in a dark cabinet or wrapping the container with aluminum foil keeps breakdown at bay. If you’ve seen bottles with an amber tint in chemical storage, this is often the reason.
Air, especially oxygen, creeps into loose lids. After all this time, I never assume a cap is tight. After each use, close it up snug and use parafilm for an extra layer. This habit lengthens the shelf life by months.
It might sound simple, but the number of mystery jars in a shared lab grows fast. Fresh labels with the date received, date opened, and user initials keep accountability alive. While some folks move compounds into smaller bottles for frequent use, I stick to the original bottle whenever I can. Transferring the chemical introduces dust, water, or bits of other reagents. In my early years, cross-contaminating samples ruined entire weeks of work.
Some labs prep solutions of tetrabutylammonium tetrafluorophenylborate in organic solvents for ease. If the compound dissolves well in acetonitrile or dichloromethane, that new solution inherits all the sensitivities—light, heat, water, and air. Store in a tightly sealed amber vial, never plastic when the solvent is aggressive. I once watched as a plastic cap swelled and cracked, leading to evaporation and wasted money.
So much of proper chemical storage boils down to discipline more than fancy equipment. Each time a bottle goes back into the fridge fast, with a date and a tight seal, you avoid trouble. Run through these steps every time and the compound will do its job, not work against you.
Tetrabutylammonium tetrafluorophenylborate isn’t a household name unless you spend your days in a chemistry lab or the specialty chemicals sector. This compound steps into the spotlight thanks to its unique combination of a bulky tetraalkylammonium cation and a highly fluorinated boron-based anion. On paper, it looks like just another salt, but in practice, finding the right solvent can make or break an experiment.
I’ve spent my share of hours mixing strange cocktails of chemicals, frustrated when solids just won’t budge at the bottom of a flask. The challenge with tetrabutylammonium tetrafluorophenylborate comes from its structure. The tetrabutylammonium chunk brings large hydrophobic tails. The anion has those electron-hungry fluorine atoms locked around a phenylborate core. Chemists usually guess solubility by weighing up this tug-of-war between water-loving (hydrophilic) and water-fearing (hydrophobic) pieces.
From firsthand experience, salts built with long carbon chains love organic solvents much more than water. No matter how much you stir, tetrabutylammonium compounds tend to settle out in water. Published data confirms this: journals like Inorganic Chemistry point out poor water solubility for many analogues. Try it in dichloromethane, acetonitrile, or even acetone—now the salt quickly clears up. The organic backbone just fits better in nonpolar or slightly polar solvents.
The answer matters for real-life chemistry. Electrochemistry labs rely on supporting electrolytes like this salt. If you try to dissolve it in water and get a cloudy, useless mess, experiments tank—not just for students, but for established researchers. Organic solvents, on the other hand, welcome this salt and allow researchers to keep solutions stable and conductive.
Working in the chemical industry, I’ve watched how poor solubility can mean wasted time and money. Labs invest in specialized salts and expect things to work. If the solvent choices aren’t clear, entire batches get scrapped. Everyone from battery researchers to catalysis scientists runs into surprises when salts don’t dissolve as advertised.
The lack of water solubility naturally narrows the applications for this salt. No one wants to wrestle a poorly soluble electrolyte if smoother alternatives exist. In some cases, though, the hydrophobic character keeps moisture out of sensitive organic reactions. No competing ions from water mean fewer unwanted side reactions.
In my career, I’ve learned to double-check every supplier specification and review literature data before trusting a compound in a new setting. One solution is to share reliable solubility guidelines in product datasheets and scientific reports. Clear guidance saves researchers and industries headaches and helps direct safer solvent handling. People rarely mention the time lost dumping failed preparations; it adds up fast.
Relying on open communication between scientists and suppliers makes a difference. Suppliers who provide precise solubility data mark themselves apart. Labs thrive with honest, up-front compatibility charts so nobody has to reinvent basic tests. The community can also champion new green solvent systems to minimize health and environment risks. Swapping dangerous solvents for safer alternatives takes teamwork and transparent reporting. This can open new uses for such salts where safety comes first.
A little attention to solubility goes a long way. Tetrabutylammonium tetrafluorophenylborate performs where it fits—but only if chemists know where it actually works.
In any chemistry lab, a small change in a compound’s identity or quality can shift experiments off track. Tetrabutylammonium Tetrafluorophenylborate, an ionic compound used in organic synthesis and analytical chemistry, is no exception. The CAS number serves as a fingerprint, allowing researchers and professionals to cut through trade names or regional labels. For Tetrabutylammonium Tetrafluorophenylborate, the CAS number is 104194-67-6. This isn’t just another series of digits—it’s the specific code that traces this compound across regulations, safety data, and supply chains worldwide.
Purity, on the other hand, decides if your project starts on solid ground or crumbles before you get real results. Commercial suppliers typically provide Tetrabutylammonium Tetrafluorophenylborate at a purity level of 98% or higher. In my own work, I have learned to double check these specifications. I once tried to cut corners with an off-brand source. My reactions delivered muddy yields until I tracked back the problem: the bottle delivered only 95% purity, with enough moisture content to affect delicate couplings. That extra three percent wasn’t just numbers. It was hours of wasted time and wasted reagents—nothing speaks louder than results, especially in a crowded field like synthetic chemistry.
Getting accurate purity data pays off, both in academia and industry labs. Contaminants turn up as side reactions or unwelcome byproducts, interfering with both small-scale discovery and commercial production runs. Low-level impurities can throw off analytical measurements, or mask subtle catalytic behavior. For techniques like NMR or HPLC, purity directly affects the data you gather. In one of my graduate school projects, I learned how much easier it becomes to interpret spectra or run clean separations when sourcing chemicals above 98% purity. Less cleanup, less troubleshooting, and more direct progress toward meaningful results. This kind of rigor helped me publish faster and with greater confidence.
The importance extends to regulated areas, too. Pharmas and electronics companies rely on high-purity reagents to avoid regulatory issues or reliability failures. Imagine an OLED display failing after a year because of residual impurities—nobody wants to recall millions of devices because a starting material wasn’t up to scratch. This is another reason why even research-focused suppliers display their Certificate of Analysis, batch by batch, and why purity benchmarks keep inching higher each year.
A trustworthy chemical supplier should connect the advertised purity and CAS number directly to a lot-specific certificate. In my professional experience, the best vendors offer prompt documentation—sometimes even spectral data or residual solvent analysis. It can take time to dig through the paperwork, but these checks save headaches in the long run. If something looks off, running a simple NMR or mass spec can sometimes reveal surprises that the label missed. As budgets tighten and global supply chains stretch thin, these small habits protect both productivity and reputation.
Open access to purity specs and unique identifiers like CAS numbers moves research forward. There’s still work to do in making data universal across borders and languages. For now, those numbers anchor the process. As science pushes toward automation and data sharing, researchers and businesses need to keep demanding clear, reliable compound information. That way, whether crafting a new catalyst or scaling up a life-saving drug, you can focus on discovery rather than damage control.
