Bifluoride ion has a very stable F-H-F structure that can bend in the solid state. It forms Hydrogen bonds readily. I am looking for any evidence, e.g. 19F or 1H NMR , infrared spectroscopy, protein crystallography, that it might exist in vivo. Its presence in whole blood, serum, plasma, muscle or other cells could help to explain examples of surprisingly low F- measured with an ion selective electrode after dosing an organism with a known amount of Fluoride.
Dear Geoff,
That is an interesting hypothesis regarding the low |F-| concentrations measured with an ion-selective electrode. I don't know if there are any experimental measurements, but from my point of view, as a theoretical chemist, I'd say an assessment of the stability of FHF in aqueous solution is paramount as a first step to understand speciation of F- in biological media. Quite often, stable structures formed either in gas-phase or in solids are highly unstable in aqueous solution. Furthermore, I believe experimental data regarding the stability of FHF in aqueous solution is much easier to come by in the literature than in biological samples.
I hope this helps.
All the best.
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