[ExI] Spirited molecules

[Anders Sandberg]

Eugen Leitl wrote:
>
> What a horrible person. You have to use hot Caro's acid,
> not nitric acid. And slowly lower them down, starting with the toes.
>

I wonder about the ignition/explosion hazard. It is not all substances that have a hazard sheet that proclaims them to be incompatible with acids, bases, metals and organic material.

It reminds me of one of the funnier chemistry blog subjects, "Things I Won't Work With"
http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/things_i_wont_work_with/
Some of them are pure poetry.

Life must have a peculiar vividness when your job is to come in and see if triazadienyl fluoride does anything when you expose it to fluorine monoxide.
- Derek Lowe

Cyanogen azide is trouble right from its empirical formula: CN4, not one hydrogen atom to its name. A molecular weight of 68 means that you’re dealing with a small, lively compound, but when the stuff is 82 per cent nitrogen, you can be sure that it’s yearning to be smaller and livelier still. That’s a common theme in explosives, this longing to return to the gaseous state, and nitrogen-nitrogen bonds are especially known for that spiritual tendency.
- Derek Lowe

[On chlorine trifluoride]
”It is, of course, extremely toxic, but that's the least of the problem. It is hypergolic with every known fuel, and so rapidly hypergolic that no ignition delay has ever been measured. It is also hypergolic with such things as cloth, wood, and test engineers, not to mention asbestos, sand, and water-with which it reacts explosively. It can be kept in some of the ordinary structural metals-steel, copper, aluminium, etc.-because of the formation of a thin film of insoluble metal fluoride which protects the bulk of the metal, just as the invisible coat of oxide on aluminium keeps it from burning up in the atmosphere. If, however, this coat is melted or scrubbed off, and has no chance to reform, the operator is confronted with the problem of coping with a metal-fluorine fire. For dealing with this situation, I have always recommended a good pair of running shoes.”
- John Clark, Ignition!

-- 
Anders Sandberg,
Future of Humanity Institute 
Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University