Patent ID: 7321062

Claim:
A process for the synthesis of (per)fluorinated mono-functional carbonyl compounds having the following formula: F—A—(R F ) t —B—C(O)X 1 (I) wherein: X 1 =F, CF 3 ; t=0, 1; A, B equal to or different from each other, are independently C 1 -C 5 (per)fluoroalkylene groups or linear or branched C 1 -C 5 (per)fluorooxyalkylene groups, optionally containing one or more Cl and/or H atoms; R F is selected from the following groups: —Rf 1 —, —ORf 1 O— wherein Rf 1 =C 1 -C 20 perfluoroalkylene; —ORf 2 —, wherein Rf 2 is a perfluorooxyalkylene chain containing one or more of the following units statistically distributed along the backbone: (C 3 F 6 O), selected between (CF 2 CF(CF 3 )O) or (CF(CF 3 )CF 2 O); (CFX 1 O) wherein X 1 is F or CF 3 ; (C 2 F 4 O); (CF 2 (CF 2 ) x′ CF 2 O) wherein x′ is an integer equal to 1 or 2; (CR 4 R 5 CF 2 CF 2 O) wherein R 4 , and R 5 are equal to or different from each other and selected between H, Cl, and wherein one fluorine atom of the perfluoromethylene unit is optionally substitued with H, Cl or (per)fluoroalkyl; wherein the carbonyl groups of a (per)fluorinated di-functional carbonyl compound of formula: X 2 (O)C—A—(R F ) t —B—C(O)X 1 (III) wherein: X 1 , R F , t, A and B have the above meanings; X 2 , equal to or different from X 1 , has the same meanings as X 1 ; are fluorinated with elemental fluorine in the presence of a catalyst based on metal fluorides having formula MeFy.zHF, Me being an alkaline or alkaline-earth metal or Ag, y=1 or 2, z being an integer equal to 0, carrying out said reaction at a temperature in the range of 40° C. to 300° C. such that it leads to the formation of C(O)FX 2 wherein X 2 is as above, said fluorination being carried out by using a fluorine amount which at most is the necessary amount to obtain the total conversion of the starting compound (III).