hexafluoropropan-2-o1 (HFP) appears as a solvent with properties at the extreme. Its combination of low nucleophilicity, high hydrogen bonding donor strength, low hydrogen bonding acceptor strength, high polarity and high ionizing power makes it an ideal solvent for radical cations. Applications of HFP as a solvent for EPR spectroscopy and mechanistic studies of radical cations as intermediates in electrophilic aromatic substitution, photochemistry and spin trapping are described.

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Extremely persistent even at room temperature are the radical cations of aromatic compounds such as dimethoxybenzene and dimethyl‐ and methoxynaphthalene, when generated photolytically in 1,1,1,3,3,3‐hexafluoro‐2‐propanol (HFP). They can be detected by EPR spectroscopy even in the presence of nucleophiles such as trinitromethanide ion. Their half‐lives in HFP often exceed those found in CF3COOH by a factor of more than 100!

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