Aluminium monofluoride, also known as fluoridoaluminium, is the

chemical compound A chemical compound is a chemical substance composed of many identical molecules (or molecular entities) containing atoms from more than one chemical element held together by chemical bonds. A molecule consisting of atoms of only one element ...

with the formula AlF. This elusive species is formed by the reaction between

aluminium trifluoride Aluminium fluoride refers to inorganic compounds with the formula AlF3·''x''H2O. They are all colorless solids. Anhydrous AlF3 is used in the production of aluminium metal. Several occur as minerals. Occurrence and production Aside from anhydr ...

and metallic

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. I ...

at elevated temperatures but quickly reverts to the reactants when cooled. Clusters derived from related aluminium(I)

halides In chemistry, a halide (rarely halogenide) is a binary chemical compound, of which one part is a halogen atom and the other part is an element or radical that is less electronegative (or more electropositive) than the halogen, to make a fluor ...

can be stabilized using specialized

ligand In coordination chemistry, a ligand is an ion or molecule ( functional group) that binds to a central metal atom to form a coordination complex. The bonding with the metal generally involves formal donation of one or more of the ligand's elec ...

s. This molecule has been detected in the interstellar medium, where molecules are so dilute that intermolecular collisions are unimportant.

References

Aluminium(I) compounds Fluorides Metal halides {{inorganic-compound-stub

See also

References