Post by @Fiona@blahaj.zone

2026-04-27 18:50 UTC

How about we play a game: The first person names a chemical substance and gives an overview as to all the ways in which it is dangerous. The next person then has to come up with something even more dangerous. Physical dangers (usually stored in pressured containers, inert gas that presents a danger of asphyxiation, …) don’t count, and the same holds for anything regarding radioactivity. Also: Huge bonus for diversity and practical danger: A lot of substances can explode, but ones that do it without much convincing and produce poison-gas, or fires that are inextinguishable, or cause cancer, yet are stable enough to actually see real world use are much more interesting. #chemistry

Replies (3)

@OskarImKeller@fnordon.de 2026-04-28 04:56

@Fiona Oh, I'm sure that @Fischblog could think of a thing or two...

Open ##1847707
@trouble@masto.ai 2026-04-27 23:36

@Fiona a race to the bottom isn't fun, just jump to the FOOF and you're done. You want instead to name as many dangerous things as possible then correctly rank them. Start with something common like HCl or even Cl2 and see how *many* you can cram between the two end points.

Open ##1847708
@Fiona@blahaj.zone 2026-04-27 18:51

I’ll start with Chlorine trifluoride. As with pretty much all flourine-containing interhalgenic compounds kinda starts with the usual “will explode to hydrogen fluoride when brought in contact with water”; for those who don’t know, hydrogen flouride is the gas that when dissolved into water will produce hydroflouric acid, one of the most widely feared substances in chemistry and normally a good starting point for this competition in its own right. On top of that it is extremely toxic and corrosive, to the point where it will attack the filters in respirators and is an oxidizer, meaning it takes the role of oxigen in most fires, except that it can light way more stuff than oxygen can, including the aforementioned water. Best of all: It sees actual real world commercial use, for example in the semiconductor industry!

Open ##1847710