How to blow yourself up – dangerous chemicals 101
I have a folder in Google Reader called “Ze Misc Stuff”. And yes, it starts with “z” just to put it down at the bottom of the list, below all the watch blogs. 
One of the blogs in that folder is a small grasping hold on my university day studies, In the Pipeline by Derek Lowe. Most of the entries are about the joys of the corporate and institutional pharmaceutical development world. Pretty boring stuff if you’re not into organic chemistry, or interested in how everyday medical drugs are created. But one of his blog categories will be of eye-opening interest to anyone who has ever sat in a high-school chemistry lab and “accidentally” created a perhaps larger than expected POOF from a bunsen burner or gas jet.
Things I Won’t Work With includes stories of why chemistry is not for idiots, with lots of explosions and other caffeine replacements to start your day.
Let’s look at his post on chlorine trifluoride as an example…
during World War II, the Germans were very interested in using it in self-igniting flamethrowers, but found it too nasty to work with.
Ah-yup. Too nasty for Nazi WWII weaponry. Uh-huh. Wyle E Coyote has nothing on this, count me out.
Look at the last sentence in this paragraph for how to deal with this compund.
It is, of course, extremely toxic, but that’s the least of the problem. It is hypergolic with every known fuel, and so rapidly hypergolic that no ignition delay has ever been measured. It is also hypergolic with such things as cloth, wood, and test engineers, not to mention asbestos, sand, and water-with which it reacts explosively. It can be kept in some of the ordinary structural metals-steel, copper, aluminium, etc.-because of the formation of a thin film of insoluble metal fluoride which protects the bulk of the metal, just as the invisible coat of oxide on aluminium keeps it from burning up in the atmosphere. If, however, this coat is melted or scrubbed off, and has no chance to reform, the operator is confronted with the problem of coping with a metal-fluorine fire. For dealing with this situation, I have always recommended a good pair of running shoes.
Momma, don’t let you sons grow up to be organic chemists!
