Fluorine - History, Safety and Applications

It was eventually realized that hydrofluoric acid contained a previously unknown element. This element was not isolated for many years after this, due to its extreme reactivity; fluorine can only be prepared from its compounds electrolytically, and then it immediately attacks any susceptible materials in the area. Finally, in 1886, elemental fluorine was isolated by Henri Moissan after almost 74 years of continuous effort by other chemists. It was an effort which cost several researchers their health or even their lives. The derivation of elemental fluorine from hydrofluoric acid is exceptionally dangerous, killing or blinding several scientists who attempted early experiments on this halogen. These men came to be referred to as "fluorine martyrs." For Moissan, it earned him the 1906 Nobel Prize in chemistry (Moissan himself lived to be 54, and it is not clear whether his fluorine work shortened his life).

The first large-scale production of fluorine was needed for the atomic bomb Manhattan project in World War II where the compound uranium hexafluoride (UF6) was needed as a gaseous carrier of uranium to separate the 235U and 238U isotopes of uranium. Today both the gaseous diffusion process and the gas centrifuge process use gaseous UF6 to produce enriched uranium for nuclear power applications. In the Manhattan Project, it was found that elemental fluorine was present whenever UF6 was, due to the spontaneous decomposition of this compound into UF4 and F2. The corrosion problem due to the F2 was eventually solved by electrolytically coating all UF6 carrying piping with nickel metal, which resists fluorine's attack. Joints and flexible parts were made from Teflon, then a very recently-discovered fluorine-containing plastic which was not attacked by F2.

Contact of exposed skin with HF solutions posses one of the most extreme and insidious industrial threats—one which is exacerbated by the fact that HF damages nerves in such a way as to make such burns initially painless. The HF molecule is capable of rapidly migrating through lipid layers of cells which would ordinarily stop an ionized acid, and the burns are typically deep. HF may react with calcium, permanently damaging the bone. More seriously, reaction with the body's calcium can cause cardiac arrhythmias, followed by cardiac arrest brought on by sudden chemical changes within the body. These cannot always be prevented with local or intravenous injection of calcium salts. HF spills over just 2.5% of the body's surface area, despite copious immediate washing, have been fatal (this corresponds with an area of about 9 in2 or 23 cm2). If the patient survives, HF burns typically produce open wounds of an especially slow-healing nature.

Elemental fluorine is a powerful oxidizer which can cause organic material, combustibles, or other flammable materials to ignite.

Atomic fluorine and molecular fluorine are used for plasma etching in semiconductor manufacturing, flat panel display production and MEMS fabrication. Other uses:

    * Hydrofluoric acid (chemical formula HF) is used to etch glass in light bulbs and other products.
    * Fluorine is indirectly used in the production of low friction plastics such as Teflon, and in halons such as Freon.
    * Along with some of its compounds, fluorine is used in the production of pure uranium from uranium hexafluoride and in the synthesis of numerous commercial fluorochemicals, including vitally important pharmaceuticals, agrochemical compounds, lubricants, and textiles.
    * Fluorochlorohydrocarbons are used extensively in air conditioning and in refrigeration. Chlorofluorocarbons have been banned for these applications because they contribute to ozone destruction and the ozone hole. Interestingly, since it is chlorine and bromine radicals which harm the ozone layer, not fluorine, compounds which do not have chlorine or bromine and contain only fluorine, carbon and hydrogen (called hydrofluorocarbons), are not on the E.P.A. list of ozone-depleting substances [2], and have been widely used as replacements for the chlorine and bromine containing fluorocarbons. Hydrofluorocarbons do have a greenhouse effect, but a small one compared with carbon dioxide and methane.
    * Sulfur hexafluoride is an extremely inert and nontoxic gas, and a member of a class of compounds that are potent greenhouse gases.
    * Many important agents for general anesthesia such as sevoflurane, desflurane, and isoflurane are hydrofluorocarbon derivatives.
    * Fluconazole is a triazole antifungal drug used in the treatment and prevention of superficial and systemic fungal infections.
    * Fluoroquinolones are a family of broad-spectrum antibiotics.
    * Sodium hexafluoroaluminate (cryolite), is used in the electrolysis of aluminium.
    * Compounds of fluorine, including sodium fluoride (NaF), stannous fluoride (SnF2) and sodium MFP, are used in toothpaste to prevent dental cavities. These compounds are also added to municipal water supplies, a process called water fluoridation, though a combination of health concerns and urban legends has sometimes led to controversy.
    * In much higher concentrations, sodium fluoride has been used as an insecticide, especially against cockroaches.
    * Fluorides have been used in the past to help molten metal flow, hence the name.
    * 18F, a radioactive isotope that emits positrons, is often used in positron emission tomography, because its half-life of 110 minutes is long by the standards of positron-emitters.
    * Some researchers including US space scientists in the early 1960s have studied elemental fluorine gas as a possible rocket propellant due to its exceptionally high specific impulse. The experiments failed because fluorine proved difficult to handle, and its combustion products proved extremely toxic and corrosive.