This property can be useful in organic synthesis and separation methods such as solid phase extraction.
[1] In practice, a perfluorinated alkyl group is incorporated into an otherwise conventional organic reagent as an affinity tag.
A major application of fluorous chemistry involves the use of fluorosurfactant perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) to facilitate the production of Teflon.
The fluorous domain is often a substituent intended to confer solubility in the fluorocarbon medium.
[3] The fluorous character of a molecule can be assessed by its partition coefficient between a perfluorocarbon and a hydrocarbon.