FLUORINE VS. NITROMETHANE! (Patreon)

Day 2 of fluorine filming was super productive! Unfortunately, it was also the last day of filming anything for a while...a neighbor saw me in my full-face respirator and got freaked out, so in an effort to avoid having the authorities called on me, I have postponed all chemistry until I can figure out a new arrangement. Even though I'm not doing anything illegal, the police don't know that, and I possess neither the money to go to court nor the desire to go to jail over a misunderstanding. Anyway, let's talk fluorine!

Now, the first big win was simply restarting the electrolyzer. I left it in my fume hood overnight fully assembled, which did run the risk of it absorbing moisture and stalling further fluorine production. Thankfully, since the KHF2 was one solid mass AND mostly shielded from air exposure, it only took 5-10 minutes of electrolysis to get fluorine going again. Yesterday, I filmed several new reactions, which I'm super excited to share:

1. Sugar: this was slightly wet and in a test tube. The fluorine generator was also getting warmed up, so it didn't really react.

2. Sodium bromide: I didn't have bromine, so this had to be my substitute. It produced a red bromine in the salt, which reacted with the fluorine when heated to form pale-colored bromine trifluoride and pentafluoride. No flame.

3. Dichloromethane: a relatively non-flammable liquid that reacted quite violently with fluorine! After a short pause, the vapor detonated with a loud snap and a yellowish flame was established that frequently flashed and popped, creating a lot of dark soot.

4. Vanadium: one heating with fluorine, an orange deposit of vanadium oxytrifluoride formed that quickly etched the glass and left a deposit of vanadium. Quite colorful!

5. Samarium: on heat, the oil coating it boiled off and caught fire in the fluorine. Once the fluorine actually reached the samarium, it sparked and hissed violently, then became yellow-white hot and reacted much more calmly.

6. Nitromethane: see for yourself above! On heating, some of it detonated, but with continued heating, the vapor caused a pulsating blue-white flame that was quite mesmerizing!

7. Magnesium ribbon: did not react, even with heating! Surprisingly, this seems to be a common thing for bulk metals: they passivate rapidly and don't react much further unless they are significantly disturbed.

8. Styrofoam: I dropped a piece into a fluorine-filled flask and it immediately caught fire and burned away slowly.

9. Wood: my personal favorite! Dropping it in, nothing really happened...then it started to smoke, and finally FOOP! The whole mass burst into flames and burned up!

I'll probably post more pictures and videos soon, hope you all enjoy! Also, I'll be interviewing Niklas from Advanced Tinkering for the main video, since he is actually a fluorine chemist, and possibly Tom from Explosions&Fire...heck, maybe I'll find a reason to get NileRed too idk! Wish me luck!