A MOST appropriate blog title..

[kayshapero]

One for the books, if the book is Great Horror Tales of Chemistry anyway.  5 years old, but quite appropriate for the month which contains Halloween.

February 23, 2010

Things I Won't Work With: Dioxygen DifluoridePosted by Derek

Comments

[kjn]

A while back I found the following collection of stories about working with explosive compounds, mostly from the 19th century: http://www.logwell.com/tales/menu/index.html.

[kayshapero]

Ah yes, the joys of Nitroglycerin... Looks interesting, thanks for the link!

[kayshapero]

No question! Like the author I'm impressed, from a very safe distance. One can only HOPE none of his experiments are repeated... once is more than enough. :)

[seawasp]

I love Things I Won't Work With. I was first introduced to it through the entry for Chlorine Trifluoride ( "Sand Won't Save You Now")

[kengr]

The current week of Skin Horse has them in a bit of a Mad Scientist lair. And one of said scientists is running around with a gun that sprays fluorine. The fluorine being carried in a clear tank on top of the weapon, The weapon looks *way* too much like a Super Soaker!

[kayshapero]

EEP!!!

[kayshapero]

No kidding. See that account further down that page of the infrequent laboratory accident and the sandstone bucket? :)

Got a few (lesser) stories myself, like the prof who kept a full sized green pressurized O2 cylinder at the front of the room, and liked to set off small explosions during lectures to keep our attention - I usually sat up front in class, but in that one I sat in back next to the exit!

[xinef]

Yikes. Nor a bit of chemistry I'd like to do. Etching ceramic with HF isn't much fun either, by the way.