Fluorine Atomic number 9 Unnatural stuff Commentary

Paris—Henri Moissan elements

Fluorine

• Georgius Agricola used fluorite
• to lower the melting point
• of metals during smelting.
• Andreas Sigismund Marggraf invented
• hydrofluoric acid.
• André-Marie Ampère knew hydrofluoric acid
• contained a new element
• similar to chlorine.
• Humphry Davy was poisoned trying to isolate it
• and named it fluorine.
• No one could isolate it.
• It was too reactive.
• It didn’t conduct electricity
• so electrolysis failed.
• It corroded electric terminals.
• It was so toxic
• several chemists died of it.
• Henri Moissan used electrolysis
• with platinum and iridium terminals
• in a glass container sealed with fluorite
• containing a conductive mixture
• of potassium bifluoride
• and dry hydrogen fluoride
• cooled to slow down the corrosion.

Atomic number 9

• Fluorite
• for smelting metals
• Hydrofluoric acid
• for etching glass
• Chlorofluorocarbon
• for refrigerants
• Hexafluorosilicic acid
• for water fluoridation
• Sodium monofluorophosphate
• for toothpaste
• Sodium hexafluoroaluminate
• and aluminium trifluoride
• for aluminum extraction
• Uranium hexafluoride
• for uranium enrichment
• Polytetrafluoroethylene
• for Teflon™
• Polytetrafluoroethylene
• for Gore-Tex®
• Krypton fluoride
• for lasers

Unnatural stuff

• Stuff that doesn’t form
• in nature, is it
• all that unnatural?
• Even natural stuff—arsenic,
• lead, mercury—is toxic,
• so do you want it?
• Fluorine is corrosive, volatile, and toxic,
• but there’s no adverse affect
• of low amounts of calcium fluoride in water.
• Our town didn’t fluoridate,
• so we had our dentist
• give our kid fluoride treatments.