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zgrssd -> RE: Everything old is new - outdated Earth tech Shadow Empires can use (12/19/2020 11:19:15 PM)
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Chlorine triflouride
How about a flamethrower that can work on concrete and metal - even in a vacuum!*
History: Nazi Germany considered it as flamethrower "fuel". NASA considered it as oxydizer for Rockets. We are still using it as cleaning agent.*
What killed it: It was deemed too reactive for both applications!* Yeah. that is right: Nazi Germany considerd it too dangerous to put into a flamethrower. And Nasa considered as too dangerous to put into Rockets.*
We still use it as a cleaning agent for realy extreme scenarios - namely all those were plasma is not deemed suitable.
Gameplay Effect: A flamethrower that basically works on everything humans can build, without needing Oxygen (so it works just about anywhere).
*I can not overstate how burny that stuff is. This thing is not a fuel for a fire - it is the Oxydizer treating just about everything as fuel.
Normal fire is just realy fast oxydisation. Stuff stops burning if either the temperature drops too low, runs out of Oxygen or the stuff becomes fully satuarted with Oxygen - wich is why Ash, Asbestos and a bunch of other things can not burn with Oxygen (anymore). Any fire with Oxygen as Oxidizer you can douse simply by depriving it of oxygen - including sufficating it under some noble gas.
Well, flouride is a better oxyidizer then Oxygen. It can use just about anything as fuel. Indeed if will rip out the oxygen just to be in it's place. Stuff that Oxygenfires can not burn anymore, especially burn with it (it is a fire that can burn other fires). You can not suffucate it, because it is the Oxydizer.
There was once a spill of about 1 ton. It burned through 30 cm of asphalt. And 90 cm of gravel below the asphalt!
NASA engineer John Drury Clark summarized the difficulties:
quote:
It is, of course, extremely toxic, but that's the least of the problem. It is hypergolic with every known fuel, and so rapidly hypergolic that no ignition delay has ever been measured. It is also hypergolic with such things as cloth, wood, and test engineers, not to mention asbestos, sand, and water—with which it reacts explosively. It can be kept in some of the ordinary structural metals—steel, copper, aluminum, etc.—because of the formation of a thin film of insoluble metal fluoride that protects the bulk of the metal, just as the invisible coat of oxide on aluminum keeps it from burning up in the atmosphere. If, however, this coat is melted or scrubbed off, and has no chance to reform, the operator is confronted with the problem of coping with a metal-fluorine fire. For dealing with this situation, I have always recommended a good pair of running shoes.
Note "Hypergolic" means roughly "spontaneous combustion at room temperature".
Oh, and triflouride is not even the worst:
We figured out Chlorine Pentaflouride by adding two Flouride atom to Triflouride. But there are other formulas. It also reacts with stuff like Gold and Platinum.
And then there is Dioxygen Difluoride, or as it is coliqually called: FOOF. We only tested this stuff once - at -100°C. And it still caused fires and explosions with just about everything. It even burns Chlorine triflouride! (It is fire, that burns fires wich burn other fires!)
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