Substances NOT To Be Messed With ...

[Calilasseia]

This thread, via a roundabout route, led me in turn, upon viewing the XKCD cartoon on pressure cookers, to this hilarious article by a chemistry blogger. You really have to admire someone who can describe a laboratory experiment as "whipping up a batch of Satan's kimchi".

Apparently dioxygen difluoride, (and yes, its chemical formula is FOOF, which describes succinctly what happens to you if you touch it), is so hideously and violently reactive with just about any other chemical substance, that it's capable of precipitating explosive detonations at a temperature of -180°C. One of the few substances it won't react with is carbon dioxide (according to the one chemist who tried this), but most other compounds are gleefully shredded and converted to explosive hot gases. React this stuff with hydrogen sulphide, for example, and the resulting exothermic reaction is so violent, it makes the explosive decomposition of nitroglycerine seem tame. Nitroglycerine liberates 196 KJ per mole of heat when it explodes ... FOOF and hydrogen sulphide liberate a whopping 433 KJ per mole.

I like this chemist's blog.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I'm so hard right now.

[Tero]

And a hard core it is! This stuff was first prepared in Germany in 1932 by Ruff and Menzel, who must have been likely lads indeed, because it's not like people didn't respect fluorine back then.

Only handled F2 once, it was 5%, 95% N2. I actually did the experiment. It might have worked a little bit but I told the boss it did not work at all.

HF I try to avoid.

[Azathoth]

you run a mixture of oxygen and fluorine through a 700-degree-heating block. "Oh, no you don't," is the common reaction of most chemists to that proposal, ". . .not unless I'm at least a mile away, two miles if I'm downwind."

[Calilasseia]

Apparently, some chemists still go in for explosive fun and games today. This paper on 1,1'-azobis(tetrazole) being a prime example. A compound with no less than ten nitrogen atoms in a chain. From the paper:

The reaction of 1-aminotetrazole with acidic sodium dichloroisocyanurate allowed isolation of 1,1′-azobis(tetrazole). The rare chain of 10 nitrogen atoms in this compound was confirmed by X-ray crystallography, and the physical and explosive properties of the azo compound were characterized. The title compound possesses both exceedingly high explosive performance and sensitivity.

Nice pictures of broken laboratory equipment included in the paper.

[Tero]

If you look at a molecule, and it looks like it can spit out N2, don't make that one. I don't handle NaN3 or CH2N2 anymore.

[JimC]

I like nitrogen when it's safely locked up in the amino acids within a nice juicy steak...

[Tyrannical]

What about POOF? Can we make something dangerous with phosphorus added to the mix?

[JimC]

What about POOF? Can we make something dangerous with phosphorus added to the mix?

It minces dangerously when brought up to body temperature...

[Tyrannical]

My brief search seems to indicate that fluoride phosphates are extremely boring

[Robert_S]

I've just made up a batch of Ice 8.5...

[rainbow]

Breathe in singlet oxygen, and you could get cancer.

[JimC]

Breathe in singlet oxygen, and you could get cancer.

The triplet is rather nasty too...

[Thinking Aloud]

Somewhere there's a photo of me in a hazmat suit preparing to do some dissolving with HF acid...

[JimC]

Somewhere there's a photo of me in a hazmat suit preparing to do some dissolving with HF acid...

When dilute, it is a good way to etch glass...