@Phorm ...wait. How the fuck does C2F4 polymerize and go stable? Those F atoms have gotta be desperately wanting to leave, right?
@Soreth Actually, no! The C-F bond is actually quite stable. Fluorine is an exceptionally bad leaving group, meaning that it doesn't like to be kicked out of an organic molecule. Chlorine will leave with some coaxing - Bromine is easy to kick out - An Iodine will fly off if you look at it funny.
That being said, it turns out iron and high pressure are enough to polymerize the stuff. Iron in the original cylinder catalyzed the initial reaction that allowed for the discovery.
Also, re: your previous post, absolutely yeah. It's nasty stuff you certainly want to treat with care. Those NFPA diamond numbers are well earned!
@Phorm This is one of those compounds that has that whole "film of elemental fluorine" between it and the metal wall of the container for parts of the reaction, doesn't it.
Good ol' carbon, taking one for the team and keeping those Fluorine atoms close at hand. There's a lot of things I don't know about chemistry, but in general my understanding for F compounds leans more in the direction of "must be going, where are my shoes" than "this is probably stable" :D
@Phorm No, I believe it! If you want stability, that definitely sounds like a damn good tool.
My danger heuristics are fairly simple because I studied mostly physics instead of chemistry - things like "gosh that's an awful lot of nitrogens here, I don't like the look of this" and "wait, won't combining these things make some real exciting compounds that might be rocket fuel" and "WHAT-methyl mercury?! Gotta go, good luck!"
I know a lot less about organic chem, it's more subtle!
@Phorm Which is not to say organic chem is less exciting - just that without a lot of study on chemistry my focus has been more on picking up things like "how not to die in a metal fire" ;)
@Soreth No, you're absolutely correct! That is important and extremely valuable knowledge. And always applicable.
@Phorm 💜
Always cool to talk about chem stuff though, it's always fascinating. :)
@Soreth That's a fair assessment of fluorine, for sure! But I do promise it can be quite stable in organic molecules.
Very often in drug design, a carbon-flourine bond will be put into a molecule instead of a carbon-hydrogen bond. They're roughly the same size and the C-F bond is so much more stable, it will prevent metabolic degradation and improve effective duration! But I may be getting into the weeds on this one, I apologize.
Because, yeah, elemental or other fluorine-delivering compounds? Give plenty of distance. Like, preferably a few zip codes.