Fluorine - The Most Reactive Element

Fluorine
This is as the form hydrofluoric acid
which is used for making light bulbs.
(Photo Credit: Periodictable.com)

Group: 17
Atomic Number: 9
Relative Mass: 18.9
Block: P


Fluorine was discovered in the year 1886 by the French chemist Henri Moissan (Who died today). Henri used the process of electrolysis to separate Fluorine from the compound Hydrogen Fluoride. Electrolysis is a technique which uses electricity as the form of direct electric current (DC), flowing through a solution, to cause chemical changes. In this case, the chemical change was separating the fluorine from the hydrogen elements. This isolation of fluorine happened on the 28th June 1886. However, the discovery wasn't set in stone then. The result had to be verified. So the French academy of science passed this result to three other scientists; Marcellin Berthelot, Henri Debray and Edmond Fremy. But, Moissan couldn't recreate the results.
Though it wasn't long before Henri Moissan realised his mistakes and demonstrated his production of fluorine a few times. For his work, Henri Moissan received a Nobel Prize in 1906. He also received 10,000 Francs.  


Fluorine is a pale yellow-green gas. It is a dangerous gas do to it's reactivity. Steel wool can just burst into flame when exposed to the fluorine gas. So its fair to say that Fluorine is the most reactive chemical element in the periodic table. This reactivity is due to it's extreme way of reacting with other elements along with Fluorine's small size. Due to the element being small, it is the lightest of the halogens elements. Halogen is the group of elements situated on group 17.


Biological Uses


The average human has just 3mg of fluorine. Too much of this elements is toxic... Especially elemental fluorine


Fluorine is an essential ion for animals - it strengthens teeth and bone. There is some belief that fluorine presences below 2 parts per million within water helps to prevent dental cavities. This is why the element is sometimes added to drinking water.


It's Uses

• Fluorine is added in toothpaste

  

  This is Fluorine within a mineral called fluorite
  Photo Credit: Wikapedia

• Before the Second World War, there wasn't much commercial use for fluorine. Except for fluorine salts - fluorides, which were used in wielding and frosting glass.
• Fluorine is used to make uranium hexafluoride which is needed by the nuclear power industry to separate uranium isotopes.
• Fluorine is also used to make sulphur hexafluoride which is the insulation gas for high-power electricity transformers.
• Fluorine is used in some many fluorochemicals - Chemicals which have fluoride in. This includes solvents and high-temperature plastics. Teflon (Or Poly-Tetrafloroethene, PTFE) is a well known resin which has non-stick properties. It is used on frying pans as well as cable insulation and the basics of waterproof clothing
• CFCs or chlorofluorocarbons are well known to contain fluorine. If you not aware, CFC were used in aerosols, refrigeration units and making polystyrene - Now they are banned. This was because their inertness meant that they diffused into the stratosphere and damaged the Ozone layer