sirius_cm
Harmless
Posts: 25
Registered: 17-5-2003
Location: Mid Florida
Member Is Offline
Mood: Tetrahedral
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Chlorine and Bromine from an Air Duster?
So I was cleaning my keyboards and the like with some Air Duster. It intrigued me to what was the gas emitted. So I looked on the bottle, and the
solitary ingredient was 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane (CAS 811-972)
I did a search for the MSDS online to see the information on its toxicity--The bottle says: "Note: intentional misuse by deliberately inhaling
contents can be fatal".
Anyhow, As I was looking on the MSDS, I noticed that it said it reacts with "Halogenated Compounds"
Now this got me thinking. I know you can pass Cl2 over NaBr and the Cl will replace the Br. The molecular formula for this wonderful colorless gas is
F-C-H2-C-F3.
So, would it be possible to pass this gas over some halogenated compound, such as table salt, and produce chlorine?
I thought I would bring this problem to you to discuss.
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Polverone
Now celebrating 21 years of madness
Posts: 3186
Registered: 19-5-2002
Location: The Sunny Pacific Northwest
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Mood: Waiting for spring
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I don't think that is possible. Tetrafluoroethane is actually very inert toward most substances. Turning it into something more interesting is
one of those problems that nags at me. I believe it yields trifluoroacetic acid when oxidized in air/oxygen by electrical discharge, but the reaction
is inefficient. I've wondered if some less sophisticated (more brutal) method might work, like passing it through hot nitric acid, or acidic
KMnO4, or just a hot tube packed with alumina...
I've also seen a few reactions of it with some organolithium compounds.
PGP Key and corresponding e-mail address
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Esplosivo
Hazard to Others
Posts: 491
Registered: 7-2-2004
Location: Mediterranean
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Mood: Quantized
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The C-F bond is a very strong stable bond. That is it's main use after all, in making the compound stable and 'unreactive'. The C-H
groups on this alkane can be probably reacted. Will search for something good to make with this compound soon.
Is this Air Duster the common sort of gas spray in a deodorant sort of can. Sry for the stupid question but where I live I need some extra details to
be sure of what I am buying lol.
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Esplosivo
Hazard to Others
Posts: 491
Registered: 7-2-2004
Location: Mediterranean
Member Is Offline
Mood: Quantized
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It seems that the compound is made too unreactive. The only thing I could think of is a substitution reaction to replace the H with Cl. This would add
Chloro groups which would make the compound some form of anaesthetic, sort of like Halotane.
Oxidation with KMnO4/H+ seems highly improbable.
Do you think it is possible forming a Grignard reagant from this compound? I mean, is it reactive enough to react with Mg in dry ether.
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