Sciencemadness Discussion Board - Favorite Non-metals (non-noble gases) Poll

Favorite Non-metals (non-noble gases) Poll

Eddygp - 28-4-2012 at 13:06

Just to have a look at the interests of the mad scientists. Feel free to comment!

AndersHoveland - 28-4-2012 at 13:58

Chlorine, because it has a surprising wealth of obscure chemistry. The full chemistry of chlorine is seldom described and goes unappreciated. It is far more than just chloride ions and elemental chlorine— Cl2O6, Cl2O7, ICl3, ClF5, for example. ClO2 and NCl3 also have some interesting complicated chemistry/equilibrium depending on the pH and reactant ratios. Then there is the CuI catalysed Finkelstein reaction, in which the chlorine in chloroalkanes can be substituted with another group.

But if you are asking me what my favorite polyatomic group is, then probably the nitro group. Nitroalkenes are useful for very complicated Michael-type addition reactions, while nitroformates have much potential for energetic propellents.

[Edited on 28-4-2012 by AndersHoveland]

barley81 - 28-4-2012 at 18:44

Iodine, dude. It smells nice, exhibits solvatochromism, and, like chlorine, has a lot of obscure chemistry as well. I like the purple vapor and the pretty crystals too. Too bad it's expensive.

I like nitrogen as well. My computer science project is a website about nitrogen chemistry.

Eddygp - 29-4-2012 at 00:48

Paradoxically, oxygen and carbon (oh, damn, forgot to add hydrogen) are not quite 'voted'...

weiming1998 - 29-4-2012 at 04:59

It's hard to decide between fluorine and chlorine.
Fluorine has some unique and interesting chemistry, but a lot of its compounds are inert and don't react with anything.
Chlorine is less reactive, but contains a far wider range of reactions than fluorine.
Finally I decided chlorine.

Eddygp - 30-4-2012 at 12:11

Each non-metal has very interesting chemical properties, and there are many reactions and interesting compounds for each one. I prefer, however, bromine.

sargent1015 - 30-4-2012 at 15:03

What is life without carbon? Definitely my top choice!

neptunium - 30-4-2012 at 16:07

fluorine without a doubt! hardest toisolet , extremely active chemicaly, and can burst into flame with liquid hydrogen!

Migratory - 30-4-2012 at 20:01

Carbon. It's versatile (as everyone here knows) and the bond angles form nice tetrahedrons.

Eddygp - 5-5-2012 at 08:01

Actually, every element is amazing... now I look at each one, I find many interesting properties.

99chemicals - 5-5-2012 at 08:24

Oxygen #16. You can't have fire or flame tests without it. It is very crucial for redox chemistry(blue bottle, thermite) It also is great for keeping people alive.

Hexavalent - 6-5-2012 at 04:48

Struggled to decide, but eventually went with silicon because of the way it's revolutionised modern technology and society.

turd - 6-5-2012 at 06:11

Quote: Originally posted by Migratory

Carbon. It's versatile (as everyone here knows) and the bond angles form nice tetrahedrons.

That's a silly reason. First of all, bond angles do not form tetrahedra, it's the coordination partners that are located at the corners of tetrahedra.

With the exception of the electronegative (O, F) and the heavy (Te, Sb, I) elements, all of the listed elements form ubiquitous tetrahedral oxo-anions or hydrogen anions (NH4+). And even metatellurates(VI) and antimonates(V) are stable and known, although rare.

In crystals O is of course often coordinated tetrahedrally. Think of oxides crystallizing in the zincblende structure type - per definition it doesn't get more tetrahedral than that. Likewise F is tetrahedrally coordinated in fluorite, one of the most ubiquitous F-containing minerals.

Not to speak of silicon, for which non-tetrahedral coordination is quite uncommon (although it does exist).

Summary: Tetrahedra (regular and distorted) are very common and certainly not a unique feature of carbon.

Edit: Ooops - horrible typo.

[Edited on 6-5-2012 by turd]

Eddygp - 15-5-2012 at 09:59

Yes.

AndersHoveland - 15-5-2012 at 10:09

Oxygen is also interesting in a way. The quantum singlet state of oxygen is extremely long lived (half-life 72 minutes), and this has chemistry implications. Ground state oxygen is excited by light to the singlet state, that can then participate in an "ene" reaction with alkenes. This is why olive oil will go rancid if exposed to air and light. This singlet state can also result in a faint red glow (observable in the dark) if calcium hypochlorite is reacted with concentrated H2O2.

The difference in reactivity between diatomic oxygen and ozone is also rather striking.

barley81 - 15-5-2012 at 11:03

And I also love ozone's blue color. See this <a href="http://www.google.com/imgres?start=21&num=10&um=1&hl=en&safe=active&sig=fi2p5QgHwFHz0U84siaTZ7xPedI&biw=1280&bih=624 &tbm=isch&tbnid=7wm0abT2tvFYZM:&imgrefurl=http://labspace.open.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php%3Fid%3D443492&docid=AuQKApf2MSmvOM&imgu rl=http://labspace.open.ac.uk/file.php/7042/s205_2_034i.jpg&w=188&h=286&ei=SKiyT-qWDubG6QGk7JDOCQ&zoom=1">picture.</a>

AirCowPeaCock - 15-5-2012 at 12:08

That is a beautiful picture of ozone! And further-more I learned that the carbonate ion also a resonance hybrid--though I had never given much thought to it. I choose Phosphorus due to its reactivity and its allotropes with interesting variations in their properties.

woelen - 16-5-2012 at 00:45

For me it is the element chlorine, because that element in particular has sparked my interest in chemistry when I was young. I read about colored gases and for me at that time that was something unbelievable. Something like "air" which could have color, that was really fascinating for me. Since then I tried to really see the colored "air" and I succeeded with chlorine fairly soon. At those days you still had 12.5% bleach in the supermarket and a toiletcleaner which consisted of solid NaHSO4 with a very small amount of NaHCO3 mixed in. I first added this toilet cleaner to water and when all bubbling stopped, then I added the concentrated solution (which was almost pure NaHSO4) to bleach and this process gave me copious amounts of beautiful green Cl2 in liter-sized bottles and I have been experimenting a lot with it at the age of 13 or so. I burned things in Cl2, let it react with hydrogen, tried how low a concentration was enough for killing a fly or a musquito.

AndersHoveland - 16-5-2012 at 00:48

Quote: Originally posted by barley81

And I also love ozone's blue color.

Here is a better picture:

Rogeryermaw - 24-5-2012 at 08:18

phosphorus is a wicked bitch. it leaves some ugly scars. still my favorite.

AndersHoveland - 26-5-2012 at 14:39

For any who chose 'boron', the boranes have some very unusual chemistry, and there is also the B(CF3)4[-] anion, which is the least coordinating of any anion known*. Not even SbF5 will interact with it.

*(perhaps with the exception of perfluorocarborane).

[Edited on 26-5-2012 by AndersHoveland]

barley81 - 26-5-2012 at 14:50

From the summary of this paper:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/1521-3765%2820011...
it is very weakly coordinating. I cannot access the whole paper, but it's interesting. Are you sure that B(CF3

4- is the absolute least coordinating? ([B[3,5-(CF3)2C6H3]4]− ) or "BARF" seems more mentioned than tetrakis(trifluoromethyl)borate for coordinating very weakly. There is probably something I'm missing because I cannot see the whole paper.

Eddygp - 3-6-2012 at 11:47

I think barley is correct, because BARF can actually be also a weakly-coordinating one. I cannot however see the whole paper either.

Eddygp - 13-6-2012 at 06:48

Many iodine and bromine lovers over here

hyfalcon - 13-6-2012 at 15:32

Carbon, can anyone say buckyballs? LOL All the way from the lowly lampblack up to diamond.

bahamuth - 13-6-2012 at 16:02

Love molten iodine, the heavy liquid feeling reminds me of mercury. But hate bromine, becuase I get pneumonia every time I 'm around it, even just when I smell it faintly I know that I'll be coughing blood later on. The bugger (bromine) is really hard to keep locked up too, easily passing through Teflon and PP plastic with only glassware reliably containing it. Additionally I find the smell unpleasant, not like the iodine which I just love in small concentrations.

Eddygp - 15-6-2012 at 13:30

Uh, the bromine fumes are terrible. Never had bromine, but you are puting me off, er... anyway...