An Element of Interest...

Fluorine is an element of "mosts." Of all the elements it is the most electronegative, the most reactive, the most nonmetallic, and the most potent oxidizing agent. Once reacted however, the substances it forms are some of the most stable and inert. Fluorine is rare in its elemental form since in tends to react with nearly anything. The earth's crust contains only 0.1% fluorine or less in the form of fluorspar (CaF₂) and cryolite (Na₃AlF₂). Fluorine can be extracted through the electrolysis of an anhydride such as potassium fluoride, but cannot be separated chemically because the fluorine reacts with any newly introduced agent.

Practical Applications

As a preventive measure against tooth decay some supplies of water in the United States are fluoridated at 1 ppm after it was observed that the residents of Deaf Smith County, TX, had better dental records attributed to the naturally fluoridated water. The United Kingdom has yet to adopt the measure of fluoridating their water because of the unconfirmed and unfounded theory that the fluorine ion is carcinogenic. In the United States and India tin (II) fluoride (stannous fluoride) is the active ingredient in toothpaste.

Fluorine became the first element to be reacted with a noble gas when in 1962 a xenon atom was artificially altered so that a 5d subshell was formed leaving four unpaired valence electrons with which to bond with fluorine. Fluorine has also recently been reacted with krypton, and oxygen with xenon.

Element Profile Source: The Camelot Chemistry Primer. Coop, Dwight Wayne. Kenndon, Krastins & Gould, Publishers. 1992
Photographic Source: The Magic of Minerals. Photographs by Olaf Medenbach, Text by Harry Wilk, Translation by John Sampson White. Springer-Verlag, New York. 1986.