Sciencemadness Discussion Board
Not logged in [Login ]
Go To Bottom

Printable Version  
 Pages:  1    3  ..  6
Author: Subject: Most extreme compounds known to man
JibbyDee
Harmless
*




Posts: 38
Registered: 25-11-2011
Member Is Offline

Mood: No Mood

[*] posted on 17-12-2011 at 10:59
Most extreme compounds known to man


I like to know examples of compounds that exhibit a specific property more than any other known compound, so I can use it as a reference point. I'll throw in my knowledge, can you add your own knowledge of the most extreme compounds. If you know multiple extreme compounds list your top 3, in order of descending extremity.

Strongest Taste
Denatonium Benzoate

They add trace amounts of this to denatured alcohol to instill in it, an extremely bitter taste which would deter most people from drinking it.


Smelliest
Ethanethiol

According to the wiki page, this compound held the 2000 Guinness world record for smelliest compound. I'm sure there are smellier ones though.


Most Flammable
Chlorine Trifluoride

From what I read, the nazis were interested in this compounds potential as an incendiary but concluded that it was too dangerous to handle and abandoned it.


Most Explosive
Octanitrocubane

From what I've read, cubanes cubic shape allows it to pack very well so octanitrocubane contains a much greater amount of nitro groups per cubic centimeter than other nitro explosives such as TNT.


Most Acidic
Fluoroantimonic Acid

An antimony-fluorine complex which is supposedly 2 x 10^19 times more acidic than pure sulfuric acid. I like this one because its the first time I've seen antimony used to create a property that as of yet, cannot be produced with other elements.

Carborane Acid

From what I've read, trifluoromethane sulfonic acid was the strongest acid known up until carborane acid was discovered.

Trifluoromethanesulfonic Acid

I like to think of this compound as sulfuric acid on steroids. Fluorinating a weak acid like acetic acid results in trifluoroacetic acid, the strongest known carboxylic acid which has a pKa of -0.25. Fluorinating a strong acid such as sulphuric acid results in fluorosulphonic acid which has a pKa of -14. Attach a methyl group so that triple the amount of fluorine atoms can be attached and you get trifluoromethanesulphonic acid which has a pKa of -16.


I have way more to add to that list but I'll leave it at that for now.

[Edited on 17-12-2011 by JibbyDee]
View user's profile View All Posts By User
Bot0nist
International Hazard
*****




Posts: 1559
Registered: 15-2-2011
Location: Right behind you.
Member Is Offline

Mood: Streching my cotyledons.

[*] posted on 17-12-2011 at 11:57


Chlorine Trifluoride isn't flammable at all. It just causes most fuels to auto ignite. It has a rating of 0 for flammability on its MSDS.

Cool thread concept though.





U.T.F.S.E. and learn the joys of autodidacticism!


Don't judge each day only by the harvest you reap, but also by the seeds you sow.
View user's profile View All Posts By User
Adas
National Hazard
****




Posts: 711
Registered: 21-9-2011
Location: Slovakia
Member Is Offline

Mood: Sensitive to shock and friction

[*] posted on 17-12-2011 at 11:59


That's very interesting topic. Especially the first one.



Rest In Pieces!
View user's profile Visit user's homepage View All Posts By User
Bot0nist
International Hazard
*****




Posts: 1559
Registered: 15-2-2011
Location: Right behind you.
Member Is Offline

Mood: Streching my cotyledons.

[*] posted on 17-12-2011 at 12:37


Quote: Originally posted by Adas  
That's very interesting topic. Especially the first one.


Its in almost everything as a bitterant. Check your "100% Acetone" bottle's ingredients.




U.T.F.S.E. and learn the joys of autodidacticism!


Don't judge each day only by the harvest you reap, but also by the seeds you sow.
View user's profile View All Posts By User
simba
Hazard to Others
***




Posts: 175
Registered: 20-5-2011
Member Is Offline

Mood: No Mood

[*] posted on 17-12-2011 at 13:00


I have been wondering for quite some time if there is any compound that has 4/4/4 in NFPA 704 danger classification.

If anyone knows, let us know also.
View user's profile View All Posts By User
bbartlog
International Hazard
*****




Posts: 1139
Registered: 27-8-2009
Location: Unmoored in time
Member Is Offline

Mood: No Mood

[*] posted on 17-12-2011 at 15:58


The Germans didn't abandon ClF3. It was never successfully weaponized but they produced multi-ton quantities of the stuff. The Russians eventually captured the factory, I believe.
I can't recall seeing a 4/4/4 danger classification. But good old hydrazine is 4/4/3.
View user's profile View All Posts By User
simba
Hazard to Others
***




Posts: 175
Registered: 20-5-2011
Member Is Offline

Mood: No Mood

[*] posted on 17-12-2011 at 16:52


Quote: Originally posted by bbartlog  
The Germans didn't abandon ClF3. It was never successfully weaponized but they produced multi-ton quantities of the stuff. The Russians eventually captured the factory, I believe.
I can't recall seeing a 4/4/4 danger classification. But good old hydrazine is 4/4/3.


Yeah, I've seen quite a couple of chemicals with 4/4/3, like diborane, germane etc, but never a 4/4/4.
View user's profile View All Posts By User
MagicJigPipe
International Hazard
*****




Posts: 1554
Registered: 19-9-2007
Location: USA
Member Is Offline

Mood: Suspicious

[*] posted on 17-12-2011 at 18:21


Quote:
Its in almost everything as a bitterant. Check your "100% Acetone" bottle's ingredients.


Checked it. No denatonium benzoate.




"There must be no barriers to freedom of inquiry ... There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and must be free to ask any question, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any errors. ... We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it and that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. And we know that as long as men are free to ask what they must, free to say what they think, free to think what they will, freedom can never be lost, and science can never regress." -J. Robert Oppenheimer
View user's profile View All Posts By User This user has MSN Messenger
hissingnoise
International Hazard
*****




Posts: 3940
Registered: 26-12-2002
Member Is Offline

Mood: Pulverulescent!

[*] posted on 18-12-2011 at 02:29


Quote:
Most Explosive

Least meaningful . . .

View user's profile View All Posts By User
blogfast25
International Hazard
*****




Posts: 10562
Registered: 3-2-2008
Location: Neverland
Member Is Offline

Mood: No Mood

[*] posted on 18-12-2011 at 06:08


Also quite 'extreme': XeO4



View user's profile View All Posts By User
phlogiston
International Hazard
*****




Posts: 1379
Registered: 26-4-2008
Location: Neon Thorium Erbium Lanthanum Neodymium Sulphur
Member Is Offline

Mood: pyrophoric

[*] posted on 18-12-2011 at 07:10


dicyanoacetylene => the hottest known flame temperature (5260K / 4900C in oxygen)

3-Nitrobenzanthrone => most carcinogenic compound known (identified in diesel exhaust)
1,8-dinitropyrene => second most carcinogenic compound known (also from diesel exhaust...)




-----
"If a rocket goes up, who cares where it comes down, that's not my concern said Wernher von Braun" - Tom Lehrer
View user's profile View All Posts By User
neptunium
National Hazard
****




Posts: 989
Registered: 12-12-2011
Location: between Uranium and Plutonium
Member Is Offline


[*] posted on 18-12-2011 at 08:22


nitrogene triiodide has been poorly studied because of its well known sensitivity
copper acetylide is the only explosive as far as i could find that doesnt produce gasses when detonated.

tungsten carbide melts at 2800c and boil at 6000!
lithium fluoride is probably the most stable salt i`ve seen
View user's profile Visit user's homepage View All Posts By User
Bot0nist
International Hazard
*****




Posts: 1559
Registered: 15-2-2011
Location: Right behind you.
Member Is Offline

Mood: Streching my cotyledons.

[*] posted on 18-12-2011 at 08:45


Quote: Originally posted by MagicJigPipe  
Quote:
Its in almost everything as a bitterant. Check your "100% Acetone" bottle's ingredients.


Checked it. No denatonium benzoate.






U.T.F.S.E. and learn the joys of autodidacticism!


Don't judge each day only by the harvest you reap, but also by the seeds you sow.
View user's profile View All Posts By User
simba
Hazard to Others
***




Posts: 175
Registered: 20-5-2011
Member Is Offline

Mood: No Mood

[*] posted on 18-12-2011 at 08:50


Fluorine (F2) is the strongest oxidizing agent if I'm not wrong.
View user's profile View All Posts By User
nezza
Hazard to Others
***




Posts: 324
Registered: 17-4-2011
Location: UK
Member Is Offline

Mood: phosphorescent

[*] posted on 18-12-2011 at 09:30


I thought lead azide has the fastest velocity of propagation for non-nuclear explosives. Does Octanitrocubane beat it ?.
View user's profile View All Posts By User
neptunium
National Hazard
****




Posts: 989
Registered: 12-12-2011
Location: between Uranium and Plutonium
Member Is Offline


[*] posted on 18-12-2011 at 10:07


yup nothing beats good old fluorine ... violents reaction garranteed with H2 even with liquid hydrogen at 20 K when F2 is solid
View user's profile Visit user's homepage View All Posts By User
AndersHoveland
Hazard to Other Members, due to repeated speculation and posting of untested highly dangerous procedures!
*****




Posts: 1986
Registered: 2-3-2011
Member Is Offline

Mood: No Mood

[*] posted on 18-12-2011 at 10:50


The two most oxidizing compounds that has been isolated contain the AgF2[+] or NiF3[+] ions. From what I know, researchers have been unable to determine which is stronger because it is so difficult to measure. These ions are so oxidizing that they can spontaneously oxidize chlorine to all the way to ClF6[+].

http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=Get...

Technically, the "strongest" acid yet prepared is dodeca-fluorocarborane acid, http://www.nature.com/news/2004/041115/full/news041115-5.htm...

B(CF3)4[-] is the probably the most inert anion, with the least interaction towards "naked" hydrogen ions.
View user's profile Visit user's homepage View All Posts By User
zoombafu
Hazard to Others
***




Posts: 255
Registered: 21-11-2011
Location: U.S.
Member Is Offline

Mood: sciencey

[*] posted on 18-12-2011 at 13:51


The smallest (neutral) atom is the hydrogen atom. Bet you guys didn't see that one coming.



View user's profile Visit user's homepage View All Posts By User
plante1999
International Hazard
*****




Posts: 1936
Registered: 27-12-2010
Member Is Offline

Mood: Mad as a hatter

[*] posted on 18-12-2011 at 18:30


Quote: Originally posted by blogfast25  
Also quite 'extreme': XeO4
I already read somthing about this compound and XeO3 , but how the hell , A compound of oxygen and an inert gas can exist at 0degree C....

[Edited on 19-12-2011 by plante1999]




I never asked for this.
View user's profile View All Posts By User
neptunium
National Hazard
****




Posts: 989
Registered: 12-12-2011
Location: between Uranium and Plutonium
Member Is Offline


[*] posted on 19-12-2011 at 05:09


F2 is such an energetic oxidizer it will capture an electron from ALL other elements exept Helium , Neon and Argon...
View user's profile Visit user's homepage View All Posts By User
ScienceSquirrel
International Hazard
*****




Posts: 1863
Registered: 18-6-2008
Location: Brittany
Member Is Offline

Mood: Dogs are pets but cats are little furry humans with four feet and self determination! :(

[*] posted on 19-12-2011 at 07:04


Quote: Originally posted by Bot0nist  
Chlorine Trifluoride isn't flammable at all. It just causes most fuels to auto ignite. It has a rating of 0 for flammability on its MSDS.

Cool thread concept though.



It is a tad better than that, not many things are hypergolic with asbestos! :D

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorine_trifluoride#Rocket_pro...
View user's profile View All Posts By User
paulr1234
Hazard to Self
**




Posts: 51
Registered: 30-8-2010
Member Is Offline

Mood: No Mood

[*] posted on 19-12-2011 at 10:58
Dimethyl Mercury


Most potent inorganic neurotoxin (I think Botulism is actually the most potent neurotoxin but given that it is a naturally occurring protein, I'm not sure where it should sit in a chemical taxonomy).
View user's profile View All Posts By User
Bot0nist
International Hazard
*****




Posts: 1559
Registered: 15-2-2011
Location: Right behind you.
Member Is Offline

Mood: Streching my cotyledons.

[*] posted on 19-12-2011 at 11:49
Dihydrogen Monoxide


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111109111536.ht...
http://www.neatorama.com/2008/08/22/5-really-weird-things-ab...

Water, while extremely common to us, is really rather weird.

[Edited on 19-12-2011 by Bot0nist]




U.T.F.S.E. and learn the joys of autodidacticism!


Don't judge each day only by the harvest you reap, but also by the seeds you sow.
View user's profile View All Posts By User
phlogiston
International Hazard
*****




Posts: 1379
Registered: 26-4-2008
Location: Neon Thorium Erbium Lanthanum Neodymium Sulphur
Member Is Offline

Mood: pyrophoric

[*] posted on 19-12-2011 at 14:12


The hardest material known: Aggregated diamond nanorods



-----
"If a rocket goes up, who cares where it comes down, that's not my concern said Wernher von Braun" - Tom Lehrer
View user's profile View All Posts By User
simba
Hazard to Others
***




Posts: 175
Registered: 20-5-2011
Member Is Offline

Mood: No Mood

[*] posted on 19-12-2011 at 15:47


Quote: Originally posted by paulr1234  
Most potent inorganic neurotoxin (I think Botulism is actually the most potent neurotoxin but given that it is a naturally occurring protein, I'm not sure where it should sit in a chemical taxonomy).


Botulinum is in fact the most acutely toxic substance known. Less than a kilo is enough to kill the whole planet.
View user's profile View All Posts By User
 Pages:  1    3  ..  6

  Go To Top