Fluorine

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Fluorine (atomic number 9) is the lightest of the halogen elements, and also the most reactive both among the halogens and among all chemical elements.

Contents

[edit] Properties

Fluorine is incredibly reactive because its outermost electron shell has only a single hole in it, and it loves to pull any other electrons it can lay its hands on into said hole to form a fluoride ion. Due to its reactivity, fluorine clings like a mofo to practically any molecule you bond it to, a feature which makes Teflon (polytetrafluoroethylene) nicely slippery and unreactive. Drug companies like organofluorine chemistry because substituting a fluorine atom for a hydrogen atom does all kinds of nifty things; the chemical industry likes fluorine because it makes nasty things like uranium much easier to work with, and it can do neat tricks like making compounds with some of the heavier noble gases (krypton and xenon; possibly radon, but it doesn't seem like anyone would want to try that one).

As a general rule, though, you don't really want to be anywhere near the stuff.

[edit] Crazy cool facts

  • It is a yellow gas that killed a lot of the people who tried to isolate it.
  • It is so reactive that hydrofluoric acid (HF), if it gets into your bloodstream, will suck the calcium out of your bones into your bloodstream, screwing up your electrolyte balance.
  • Fluorine, either free, or as a fluoride ion in hydrofluoric acid, can dissolve glass - it is usually stored on flasks made of Teflon, which, by the way, is also made with fluorine.
  • Three atoms of fluorine will combine with a single atom of chlorine (Chlorine trifluoride, ClF3) to demonstrate emphatically that there are things more entertainingly hazardous than fluorine gas.
  • To top the one above, there is dioxygen difluoride, O2F2 or more evocatively FOOF.[1][2]

[edit] Fluorine and conspiracy nuts

Fluorine, in the form of salts such as sodium fluoride, is an essential component in water fluoridation, which some conspiracy theorists say is a plot to poison us all.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. For more horrifying details, visit http://what-if.xkcd.com/40/.
  2. Things I Won't Work With: Dioxygen Difluoride
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