Perhaps you’ve heard of the Sodium Party. Sodium blows up when it gets in contact with water. This nutty fellow had a party at his house in which they had fun with this. Check it out: lots of cool movies ‘n’ stuff.
DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!
Not that anyone would normally have a tank of fluorine gas, but what would happen in the following situation?
Imagine a tank of fluorine gas as big as those big ones of nitrogren for industrial use. Now suppose you put this tank on the bottom of a swimming pool. Suppose now that there is a mechanism by which a small door 4 cm square is suddenly opened, allowing the pressurized fluorine to hit the water through such a large aperture.
I have guess as to what would happen–and it wouldn’t be pretty–but I’d like to hear your interpretations first.
No thoughts on the size of the explosion or how much energy could be released? Paint me a picture!
OK–I’ll reveal my own speculations, sans numbers, however.
I think that after the door was opened, you’d have fluorine exiting at high pressure and instantly reacting with water (at significant water pressure at the bottom of the pool) explosively. I think the entire tank would be blown to bits at which time you’d have an even bigger explosion.
The fluorine would explode even as it was bubbling up at the water at high speed. The question is whether any of the fluorine would hit the air above the pool. I don’t think so. Supposing it was the deep end of the pool, I think the fluorine would suck more and more water into the reaction, yet it would happen so fast that a huge amount of water would be converted to HF and O[sub]2[/sub] instantly.
So, in sum, I think you’d first see a bright flash–then the tank would blow–then there would be a huge explosion like a ton of TNT going up with water being sprayed up in a huge funnel cloud of fire.
I don’t think I’d want to be anywhere nearby – a rain of hydrofluoric acid sounds like a vision of hell, even without the accompanying explosion.
Regarding the link in the OP – if you really want to get fast reaction (and thus a big explosition) don’t use sodium metal in chunks. Use sodium dispersion – incredibly tiny bits of sodium kept in oil. The surface area is enormous, allowing all the sodium to react much more rapidly. It’s the method of choice for doing reactions with sodium rapidly.
In fact, it sounds very like Dante’s portrayal of the Seventh Circle of Hell, where the sinners walk endlessly through a desert of burning sand under a rain of fire…
Actually, any of the alkali metals will react expolosively when thrown into water (lithium, sodium, potassium, cesium, presumanly francium, although no one’s ever gotten enough together). The farther they are up the periodic table, I find the more energetic the reaction (yeah, I’ve thrown various ones into water. In the course of legitimate scientific research. Plus, it looks cool.) So Cesium should be more reactive than sodium. And being liquid rather than solid would certainly speed the reaction.
A century ago scientist, professor, and weirdo R.W. Wood used to walk around Baltimore, I’m told, dressed all in black, throwing sodium or potassium wrapped in twists of paper into puddles of water and watching the reactions of passersby. My kinda scientist.
H. Allen Smith’s book, The Complete Practical Joker, told the story of somebody who may well have been Wood, who did just that, except he would spit into the puddle as he dropped the sodium in, making people think that he was spitting fire and brimstone…
Pretty much. It’s more electronegative than oxygen.
That’s right: it oxidises oxygen!
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So what would oxygen fluoride be like? Solid? Crystalline?
Time to google… okay! Webelements on oxygen (II) fluoride (F[sub]2[/sub]O) and oxygen (I) fluoride (F[sub]2[/sub]O[sub]2[/sub]). Bummer. Looks lke they’re both gases at STP. I was hoping for some funky crystal action. OTOH, the structure of F[sub]2[/sub]O looks like that of water. I wonder whether you’d get the same interesting polar effects in liquid F[sub]2[/sub]O as you do with liquid water?
Me too. From a safe distance. Such as a neighbouring continent.
Given that Cesium is in the same column of the periodic table as Sodium, and Fluorine and Chlorine also share a column, wouldn’t this be about as interesting as adding table salt to water? Hell, I do that every time I cook pasta.
I’ve just finished Oliver Sachs story of his boyhood which is mostly about his early interest in Chemistry. He describes throwing a whole pound of sodium into the ponds Hampstead Heath with some school friends.
Of couse (as he says) the really amazing thing is that a chemist would actually sell a 12 year old that much sodium. Wouldn’t happen today.
You’re not going to find many compounds made of lightweight non-metals that are solid. There isn’t much attraction between the molecules. The only reason water is a liquid is the polar attraction.
Nitpick #2 – Cesium halide salts aren’t any more explosive than NaCl, as far as I know. The CRC Handbook lists its solubility in water and other solvents, without any reference to unwanted reactions.
