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Fluorine: Elements
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Fluorine,a yellowgas (18), is the most electronegative and the most reactive chemical element. It reacts with nearlyall organic and inorganic materials, even withgold and platinum. Hydrogen and fluorine react with explosive violence. With water, fluorine forms hydrofluoric acid and ozone. A jet of fluorine from apressure container reacts with human flesh and can cause extremely severe burns thatare very difficult to heal. Mechanisms oftissue destruction include destructive oxidation by fluorine, thermal damage from the heat of reaction, and tissue poisoning by HF formed.
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Fluorine is a chemical element that in pure form occurs as a dimer of two fluorine atoms, F2. The fluorine atom has the ground state electron configuration 1s22s22p5. There is only one stable, naturally occurring isotope of fluorine: 19F. However, the radioactive isotopes 17F, 18F, and 20F are known. The inclusion of the isotope 18F (half-life 110 minutes) in bioorganic molecules is an important noninvasive technique used in the study of living tissue by positron emission tomography.
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Fluorine reacts with considerable violence with most hydrogen-containing compounds, such as water, ammonia, and all organic chemical substances whether liquids, solids, or gases. The reaction of fluorine with water is very complex, yielding mainly hydrogen fluoride and oxygen with less amounts of hydrogen peroxide, oxygen difluoride, and ozone. Fluorine displaces other nonmetallic elements from their compounds, even those nearest fluorine in chemical activity. It displaces chlorine from sodium chloride, and oxygen from silica, glass, and some ceramic materials. In the absence of hydrofluoric acid... fluorine does not significantly etch quartz or glass even after several hours at temperatures as high as 390°F (200°C).
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Fluorine occurs naturally in the combined form as FLUORITE (or fluorspar), CRYOLITE, and APATITE (qq.v.). Fluorite, from which most fluorine compounds are generally derived, is commonly mined in the U.S. from large deposits in northern Kentucky and southern Illinois. Fluorine ... occurs as fluorides in seawater, rivers, and mineral springs, in the stems of certain grasses, and in the bones and teeth of animals. It is the 17th element in order of abundance in the crust of the earth. According to one recent suggestion by astrophysicists, the relative abundance of fluorine in interstellar space may be linked to processes initiated by supernova explosions.
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Fluorine was discovered by Karl Scheele in 1771, recognized as a halogen in 1825, and included in Mendeleev's periodic table of 1869. Fluorine is so active that it existed only in compounds and all efforts to isolate the element failed. Because of its high corrosiveness/toxticity, early fluorine chemists died from fluorine poisoning and the element was dubbed "Tiger of Chemistry." Fluorine, from Latin "fleure" meaning to flow, is the 13th most abundant element in the earth's crust and the most reactive of all elements--it even forms compounds with noble gases.
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Fluorine can often be substituted for hydrogen when it occurs in organic compounds. Through this mechanism, fluorine can have a very large number of compoundss. Fluorine compounds involving rare gases have been confirmed with fluorides of krypton, radon, and xenon. This element is recovered from fluorite, cryolite, and fluorapatite.
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