nasty stuff ,i would not want to use it at home or in a lab.
when i worked at ici hf was treated as a specialist reagent and handled by the old folks same as hcn and flurine .they let me play with naps , 2000 psi h2/catalysts and various other moody or potentially very toxic reagents
sometimes in new conditions that have not been tried before it was interesting and occasionally rather too exiting when nitrating things , i still would not want to play with hf.
hf is useful to get the first 4 f into hex (f2 for the last pair )it wouldnt want to work at that either
I'd feel safer using a hedge flail as a tooth pick.
HF is used mainly in making the integrated circuits. I usually worked on making them into something useful and packaging them so nobody could put their fingers all over them. Did use fluoboric acid in a tin-lead plating bath in the dim and distant past though. Hope it has been superseded by something a bit less nasty these days.
I'm pretty sure it has been replaced with a toned down version, at least for etching. Friend of husband's wanted some for some sort of etching, Dad said no way is that what he really wants, it's seriously nasty etc. Anyway, we couldn't find any but we did find etching fluid which did just what he wanted, still had some dire warnings, but not so nasty as HF.
Nick
Joined: 02 Nov 2004 Posts: 34535 Location: Hereford
Toasted Soreen contains acrylamide, which is an accumulative neurotoxin, which can cause cancer increasing tumors in the nervous system, oral cavity, peritoneum, thyroid gland, mammary gland, uterus, and clitoris.
i didnt like to mention it in case i restarted the roast potato wars.
Jam Lady
Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 2571 Location: New Jersey, USA
Posted: Mon Jan 23, 17 9:47 pm Post subject:
Aqua regia. Way back in the dark ages when I worked in the technician's lab in college I mixed some up (under supervision) for Mr Jam Lord and he used it to etch a dragon into sterling sliver for a belt buckle.
A R works but there are safer chemical alternatives for etching silver, best etching method is electro etching which is pretty safe so long as you don't drink the liquid
the best way to make silver into a 3D interesting shape is to make the shape in wax and post it to some nice chaps we know in scotland who will lost wax cast it for the metal price + 25% .
i think nick was referring to a recent UK gov medical report about toasted food and over cooked spuds where the "dangers" although real are far smaller and less immediate than those of alkali metal azides ( i dont like them any more, long story but .... ) or the bad end of corrosives, poisons, unstable explosives, sneaky inflammables and moody oxidising agents. chemistry is fun but one should know where to stop.
a while ago i read a rather good but extreme recipe book that included the phrase " if it starts to smoke tip the pot into the river immediately or else you will very soon be dead " (going by the rest of the book i suspect that was based on direct observational experience )
pretty good h and s advice but as that sort of improvisation does not appeal to me it wont be an issue
You can also plate up precious metals. I once saw a gold belt buckle being plated up for some middle eastern potentate. They left it in the plating bath for days.
An accidental 'home chemistry' that sometimes used to cause people to end up in A&E was mixing bleach and toilet cleaner containing acid to make sure the toilet was really clean. It gives off chlorine, which of course was used as poison gas during WWI. I think most bleach is now peroxide based, so just tends to foam rather badly when mixed with acid.
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