The Melting & Boiling Point of Fluorine

Discovery

• Despite being relatively abundant in the Earth's crust, fluorine was isolated by French chemist Henri Moissan in 1886 using an electrolyitc process. Moissan was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1906 for his effort, but he had suffered effects from poisoning by fluorine, which may have contributed to his death the year after his award. The perils of working with fluorine are illustrated by the number of poisonings, explosions and even deaths endured by early chemists attempting to isolate fluorine.

Halogens

• Fluorine is a nonmetal found at the top of Group 17 of the periodic table, the group often referred to as the halogens. The halogens, or "salt-formers," are widely known for the formation of salts and are often encountered naturally in this form. Calcium fluoride, for example, is known to minerologists as fluorite. The halogens as a group are highly reactive with a broad range of substances with fluorine standing out as the most reactive of these elements. In fact, early attempts at purifying fluorine had difficulty with simply finding a suitable container as fluorine will etch glass and react with palladium and gold.

Noble Gas Compounds

• The versatility of fluorine to form compounds with a large number of elements allows for a tremendous number of fluorine compounds. Even the noble gases, which had at one time been termed the inert gases since they were considered unreactive with most elements have, been able to form compounds with fluorine under appropriate conditions. For example, xenon has been used to form xenon difluoride (XeF2), xenon tetrafluoride (XeF4) and Xenon hexafluoride (XeF6).

Uses

• Although fluorine was isolated in the late 19th century, there was little use for the element until the development of nuclear energy, where fluorine found importance in forming uranium hexafluoride as part of the uranium refining process. Fluorine compounds, known as fluorocarbons, found prevalence in aerosol cans and air conditioning until concerns of environmental damage led to there disuse. Today, fluorine is commonly encountered in dental care as some municipalities add extremely low levels of fluorine to water supplies and it is used in toothpaste.