Swarts fluorination


Swarts fluorination is a process whereby the chlorine atoms in a compound – generally an organic compound, but experiments have been performed using silanes – are replaced with fluorine, by treatment with antimony trifluoride in the presence of chlorine or of antimony pentachloride. The active species is antimony trifluorodichloride, which is produced in situ; this compound can also be produced in bulk, according to a patent of John Weaver
The process was initially described by Frédéric Jean Edmond Swarts in 1892: