[meteorite-list] Etching Compounds

From: Marc D. Fries <m.fries_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat Sep 11 15:06:20 2004
Message-ID: <1512.67.249.200.113.1094929577.squirrel_at_webmail.ciw.edu>

Of course, the down side of using fluoridated compounds is that they can
MAKE YOU DIE! ...or just get burned very badly and end up in the
hospital.

For those of y'all who subscribe to Discover magazine, they had one of
their "Vital Signs" articles about a hydrofluoric acid burn a few years
ago. It's enough to turn you away from using fluorinated compounds ever
again:

http://www.discover.com/issues/apr-96/departments/aninvisiblefire739/

Be careful with that stuff - fluorine is a small enough atom that it soaks
right through your skin and attacks your arteries and heart instead of
"just" burning your skin.

Cheers,
MDF

> in my very Very VERY limited experience a solution of ammonium biflouride
> in
> phosphoric acid makes an excellet 'cleaning potion' for iron meteroties. I
> was quite skeptical of it's usefullness due to the flourine content, but
> the
> small sikhote i cleaned over a year ago is in perfect shape today - and
> it's
> a 'shower' - gets passed around to friends and sits around unprotected in
> the wet florida weather. a nice added bonus is that if left on a metal to
> be
> cleaned it leaves a layer of black iron oxide, somewhat hiding the cleaned
> areas in fusion crusted irons.
>
>
>

---
Marc D. Fries, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Carnegie Institution of Washington
Geophysical Laboratory
5251 Broad Branch Rd. NW
Washington, DC 20015
PH:  202 478 7970
FAX: 202 478 8901

Received on Sat 11 Sep 2004 03:06:17 PM PDT