Chlorine trifluoride - the hypergolic that even sets asbestos on fire on contact

[gary]

Thank you to friend and fellow engineer, LW, who directed me to this
enlightening and humorous commentary by Derek Lowe (https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2008/02/26/sand_wont_save_you_this_time) on the
Science Magazine blog site which was posted over a decade ago
on 26 February 2008.

In a brief essay entitled "Sand Won't Save You This Time (https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2008/02/26/sand_wont_save_you_this_time)", Lowe
elucidates on the quirkiness of the compound chlorine trifluoride (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorine_trifluoride).

A poisonous gas which condenses into a liquid at 11.5C, it is, to say
the least, a particularly reactive reagent.



A hypergolic (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypergolic_propellant), it will instantly and violently ignite just about
anything, without an ignition source, including glass, plexiglass,
asbestos, water, fabrics, concrete and gas masks.

During such reactions it will often violently explode.

Exposure to larger amounts of it, as a gas or liquid, ignites living tissue.

Throw sand on it - a sure way of putting out a lot of fires - and the sand
will catch on fire.

Douse it with water and not only do you get a violent reaction but
clouds of hydrofluoric and hydrochloric acid.

Derek Lowe in his essay also cites a passage from the book
"Ignition!: An informal history of liquid rocket propellants" (https://www.amazon.com/Ignition-informal-history-liquid-propellants/dp/0813507251) by
John Drury Clark (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Drury_Clark), who as an engineer developed liquid propellants
at the Naval Air Rocket Test Station in New Jersey between 1949
and 1970 and who had first hand experience with this stuff.

The blog is worth reading for the quote from Clark alone. :lol:

Derek Lowe blog on chlorine trifluoride here :-
https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2008/02/26/sand_wont_save_you_this_time

Wikipedia page on chlorine trifluoride here :-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorine_trifluoride

Wikipedia page on rocket fuel engineer, chemist and science fiction writer
John Drury Clark here :-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Drury_Clark

The book ""Ignition!: An informal history of liquid rocket propellants"
now in print again and available on Amazon here :-
https://www.amazon.com/Ignition-informal-history-liquid-propellants/dp/0813507251

A scanned PDF archive (copyright violation) of the 1972 book here :-
https://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/ignition.pdf

YouTube video (1m41s) from 2012 made by French scientists
demonstrating what happens when chlorine triflouride comes into
contact with most things you would hope would protect you in a lab, like
plexiglass and gas masks :-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4l56AfUTnQ

[Stonius]

So is it any good for cleaning optics?

[gary]

:lol:

Hi Markus,

It will completely remove the pesky glass of the optics away,
providing an uninterrupted view of the heavens.

However, burning at a temperature of 2400C it is likely to also
spontaneously ignite the observer's eyeball before burrowing
through to the brain causing it to explode like a personal supernova. :lol:

Probably safest to have a friend test it first. :lol:

[Stonius]

:lol: "Chlorine Triflouride Optical Cleaner - you'll see stars like never before!"

[gary]

Hi Markus,

:lol:

Love the "I tried it at home" meme! Hadn't seen that before. That's fabulous! :rofl:

[multiweb]

Thanks for the links Gary. Still reading through a lot of the stuff since you've posted. I had no idea how rocket functioned. I thought it was just burning stuff but it's more like a "controlled" chemical reaction. :eyepop: Some goodies in that 1972 edition PDF download.

[multiweb]

These are pretty good too. :lol::lol::lol:

[gary]

:lol:

[gary]

:lol:

[DeWynter]

Derek Lowe has another excellent article on Dioxygen Difluoride which is similar to Chlorine Trifluoride:

https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2010/02/23/things_i_wont_work_with_dioxygen_di fluoride

[multiweb]

Tree clearing.

[RickS]

Will following a few of those links guarantee a body cavity search next time I go through US Customs?

[multiweb]

As long as the officer is not an ex rocket scientist and the latex gloves used haven't come in contact with anything that has a PH lower than 3 you'll be alright. :lol:

[RickS]

Whew! That's good ;)

[Wavytone]

There’s a test lab I saw northwest of Sydney decades ago which had a series of concrete bunker test labs for explosive materials - but one difference - they were underground in case of exactly that sort of thing.

Not sure if it’s still there - probably has been ploughed under for housing by now or buried under a motorway.