Fluorine, the most electronegative atom, is almost never found in naturally occurring biological molecules. However, pharmaceutical chemists often design drugs, such as the one shown here, that contain fluorine atoms in place of hydrogen atoms.
(a) Draw a water molecule as a bent “H—O—H” near the F atom. Add a dashed line to show the hydrogen bond that forms between the fluorinated drug molecule and the water molecule. Draw the dashed line carefully to show which atoms are connected by the hydrogen bond.
(b) Explain why the molecule shown above is more soluble than the same molecule with an H atom in place of the F atom.
