Fluorine
The most reactive element there is, and the reason non-stick pans are non-stick.
Fluorine is the most electronegative element and reacts with almost everything, including glass and water. Isolating it took chemists most of the nineteenth century, and several were seriously injured trying.
Paradoxically, the carbon-fluorine bond it forms is one of the strongest in organic chemistry, which is why fluoropolymers such as PTFE are chemically inert, heat-resistant and slippery. The same stability makes some fluorinated compounds extremely persistent in the environment — the property that makes them useful is the property that makes them difficult.
Uses
Fluorine's uses run through its compounds, since the element itself is too reactive to handle casually. Fluoropolymers — PTFE above all — give surfaces almost nothing sticks to and chemical resistance nothing else matches, which puts them in cookware, gaskets, and the lining of chemical plant.
Uranium enrichment depends on uranium hexafluoride, the only convenient gaseous uranium compound. Fluoride in water and toothpaste hardens tooth enamel, and a large share of modern pharmaceuticals contains at least one fluorine atom, which alters how the drug is metabolised.
How we know: checked recently · only one source, so there is nothing to cross-check it against · stated directly by the source.
How this connects
Where a connection has been confirmed by an outside reference, that reference is named beside it.
is used as
- Corrosion protection — application · fluoropolymer linings resist chemicals that attack every metal
is extracted from
- Fluorite — mineral · the only significant source; hydrofluoric acid is made from it and everything fluorinated follows Wikidata
is found in
- Polytetrafluoroethylene — material · every available position on it, and the whole of the material's behaviour: the strongest bond in organic chemistry, packed tightly enough that nothing sticks and nothing attacks
- Apatite — mineral · substitutes within a solid solution — an individual specimen may hold little of it
- Bastnäsite — mineral
- Fluorite — mineral Wikidata
- Lepidolite — mineral · substitutes within a solid solution — an individual specimen may hold little of it
- Topaz — mineral · substitutes within a solid solution — an individual specimen may hold little of it Wikidata
is an input to
- Polymerisation — process · as tetrafluoroethylene, which is where a substantial share of industrial fluorine chemistry ends up
is produced by
- Molten salt electrolysis — process · electrolysis of potassium bifluoride, which is molten and conducts — there is no chemical oxidant strong enough to displace fluorine from a compound, so electricity is the only route and always has been
is associated with
- The Montreal Protocol — event · in the replacements as much as in the originals, which is why the argument moved from ozone to global warming potential rather than ending
Sources
- Material WorldOur own writing
- Wikimedia Foundation · Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal (public domain dedication)
- US National Library of Medicine · Mixed — aggregated third-party content, rights retained by depositors
- United States Department of Commerce · US Government work — public information, credit requested