A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
Rules
For anyone not acquainted with Things I Won't Work With
And yes, what happens next is just what you think happens: 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
"Even Streng had to give up on some of the planned experiments, though (bonus dormitat Strengus?). Sulfur compounds defeated him, because the thermodynamics were just too titanic. Hydrogen sulfide, for example, reacts with four molecules of FOOF to give sulfur hexafluoride, 2 molecules of HF and four oxygens. . .and 433 kcal, which is the kind of every-man-for-himself exotherm that you want to avoid at all cost. The sulfur chemistry of FOOF remains unexplored, so if you feel like whipping up a batch of Satan's kimchi, go right ahead."
Holy shit I'm dying.
Though I managed in chemistry, I understand that kcal is just an expression of energy and the reaction’s event total time is important in judging ‘violence’ of reaction - but for the uninitiated like myself, how do I quantify “433 kcal” compared to a more mundane reaction?
You know the typical explosion of Hydrogen and Oxygen. Four times that. And most Hydrogen and Oxygen explosion aren't even properly mixed. So even more than that.
You know what is scary? FOOF, ClF3 and fluorine arent the most reactive or horrifying of the oxidizers. There's much worse.
Go on. Tell me more, and then send it to Derek Lowe.