Mad Scientist? Evil Genius? You need this!

[300EVIL]

Holy shit... how much time left till ebay will be selling uranium?

They already do! http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=ura...=p3286.c0.m359

[DMills]

Deuterium?
Boring, it is the other HEAVY hydrogen isotope that would make a bottle that size interesting.

Besides where is the bottle of the other chemical laser gas (Fluorine) to go with the D2?

Regards, Dan.

[Jem]

Besides where is the bottle of the other chemical laser gas (Fluorine) to go with the D2?

Ouch! Isn't Flourine (the element) supposedly the most reactive of all the elements? I seem to recall a safe working limit of 1 ppm.

Many years ago the company I worked for inherited a bottle of fuming Hydrofluoric acid, complete with all the safety casings. apparently that stuff would eat its way into glass like it was butter. We had a real fiasco trying to find someone to take it off our hands for disposal, subsequently it sat in a cupboard for years until we finally found someone who had a use for it.

Jem

[buffo]

Ouch! Isn't Flourine (the element) supposedly the most reactive of all the elements?

Yep. That's one reason why it's so often used in chemical lasers. The stuff reacts very violently. As a result, you end up with a population inversion in the reaction products. You don't need any external pumping; the reaction alone generates enough energy to pump the laser.

Fluorine is also used in Excimer lasers, where it's high reactivity can be used to create meta-stable molecules of Fluorine and Argon (or other elements) that can only exist in an excited state. Once they lase, they fall apart (back to their constituent elements). Those lasers do require external pumping, however.

Either way though, Fluorine is thoroughly nasty stuff.

Adam

[Jem]

Interesting info Adam, thanks

After I made the last post I did a quick web search on Fluorine and turned up some pretty interesting (and exciting) stuff. There's some good video's on YouTube showing some of the reactions . It's a fair while since I did Chemistry at school and it's amazing how easily you forget all this brilliant infomation.

Cheers

Jem

[buffo]

I need to get Spec to reply to this thread. He recently came across a container of Hydrofluoric acid that some laser company had used (years and years ago) to etch glass to make custom lumia wheels. And yeah, just as you mentioned, he had a hell of a time finding someone to take it off his hands.

Adam

[DMills]

And the reaction product (hydrogen fluoride) does not have much to recommend it either.
Pity because the pair would also make a wickedly high impulse rocket propellent if environmental and handling considerations didn't rather rule it out.

The truly NASTY thing about hydrofloric acid is that it has a massive affinity for Calcium, so it attacks bone.
I have used the stuff dilute (VERY Carefully with a really extreme chemical resistant suit and it does indeed etch glass), but the thought of it in concentrated, FUMING form is rather scary.

Regards, Dan.

[DMills]

One of the better practical jokes played at my University was putting on a lab coat then running down the hallway in the chemistry department at EXAM TIME screaming "FLUORINE LEAK", the scary part, some of the invigilators tried to keep the exam students from legging it.
I could not possibly comment on the identity of the person who put this one into effect.

It is one of a half dozen or so substances that are on my personal "Not in my lab you bloody don't" list, right up there above beryllium with methyl mercury.

Regards, Dan.

[danielbriggs]

Buffo,
I know what you said was correct... but when I read it I couldn't help liking you to that scene from Real Genius!

As you know, Mitch and I were working on the cyanide system. Well, earlier today it ate itself. But, these little set-backs are just what we need to take a giant step forward. Right, Kent? Needless to say, I was a little despondent about the melt down, but then, in the midst of my preparations for hari kiri, it came to me. It is possible to synthesize excited bromide in an argon matrix. Yes, it's an excimer frozen in its excited state.

Th... That's impossible.

It's a chemical laser but in solid, not gaseous, form. Put simply, in deference to you, Kent, it's like lasing a stick of dynamite. As soon as we apply a field, we couple to a state, it is radiatively coupled to the ground state. I figure we can extract at least ten to the twenty-first photons per cubic centimeter which will give one kilojoule per cubic centimeter at 600 nanometers, or, one megajoule per liter.

[buffo]

Hehe... I love that movie.

Next line in the sequence (if memory serves) would be "That's hotter than the sun".
Then: "It's small", followed by Dr. Hathaway saying "It's supposed to be small".

Adam