re: #70 ProTARDISLiberal

Well, one A. G. Streng of Temple University decided to mix FOOF with these compounds and others in the early 60’s.

I would love to see how the research proposal for that looked.

“I will mix the compound I know only theoretically with a crapton of others to find out what it does. Some of these other compounds are violent in their own right. Please give me money.”

Here’s another page at that blog worth the read, about chlorine trifluoride: “Sand Won’t Save You This Time”

The compound also a stronger oxidizing agent than oxygen itself, which also puts it into rare territory. That means that it can potentially go on to “burn” things that you would normally consider already burnt to hell and gone, and a practical consequence of that is that it’ll start roaring reactions with things like bricks and asbestos tile. It’s been used in the semiconductor industry to clean oxides off of surfaces, at which activity it no doubt excels.

There’s a report from the early 1950s (in this PDF) of a one-ton spill of the stuff. It burned its way through a foot of concrete floor and chewed up another meter of sand and gravel beneath, completing a day that I’m sure no one involved ever forgot. That process, I should add, would necessarily have been accompanied by copious amounts of horribly toxic and corrosive by-products: it’s bad enough when your reagent ignites wet sand, but the clouds of hot hydrofluoric acid are your special door prize if you’re foolhardy enough to hang around and watch the fireworks.

Nasty stuff…