Ionization of Trifluoromethane Sulfonic Acid in Phosphoric Acid Raman Studies

Raman spectroscopy studies indicate that the TFMSA is essentially completely ionized in H/sub 3/PO/sub 4/ and H/sub 3/PO/sub 4/-H/sub 2/O solutions for a mole fraction X /SUB TFMSA/ below 0.4. NMR measurements on the mixed acid solutions indicate only one proton spin resonance line and the expected C-13 spectrum for the CF/sub 3/SO/sub 3//sup -/. Therefore, the acid ionization processes are quite fast. The protons in the mixed acid solutions are most likely in the forms (H/sub 4/PO/sub 4/)/sup +/ and (H/sub 3/O)/sup +/.