Things I Won't Work With: Dioxygen Difluoride (2010)

Posted by PebblesRox 3/31/2025

Things I Won't Work With: Dioxygen Difluoride (2010)(www.science.org)

271 points | 119 commentspage 2

rbanffy 3/31/2025|

I remember this article and I'm laughing before I even click the link. What a delightful read. Even more delightful I've never encountered this molecule.

RandomBacon 3/31/2025||

Bit rot: the article links to http://www.lateralscience.co.uk which is now just an advertisement for online gambling.

philipkglass 3/31/2025|

Here's a good snapshot of that page as it appeared in 2010, when this article linked to it:

https://web.archive.org/web/20100430182802/http://www.latera...

sortalongo 3/31/2025||

> 433 kcal/mole

For reference, TNT is 1kcal/g. This is 6.2 kcal/g.

moffkalast 3/31/2025|

Less of a FOOF and more of a BOOM

ubermonkey 3/31/2025||

There are two kinds of popular reposts in the world.

Most are Type 1, which is "meh, this again" followed by a scroll away.

This is an excellent example of Type 2, which is "Oh boy! I get to read this again!"

(See also: the SR71 speed check story; the story of Mel, the Real Programmer; etc.)

MaKey 3/31/2025||

I'd like to add the "We can't send mail more than 500 miles" story to that list: https://web.mit.edu/jemorris/humor/500-miles

ubermonkey 3/31/2025||

OH, absolutely. That's another gem!

PebblesRox 3/31/2025||

Ah, the SR-71 was new to me, thank you!

https://www.thesr71blackbird.com/Aircraft/Stories/sr-71-blac...

http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/story-of-mel.html

ourmandave 3/31/2025||

Dioxygen Difluoride

That both words start with DIe! is enough to warn me off.

Ygg2 3/31/2025|

Dihydorgen Dioxide. Oh no!

jerf 3/31/2025|||

Not the best example. Hydrogen peroxide is actually rather nasty when highly pure. I mean, it's got nothing on FOOF, not many things do, but it's still in a class where it needs to be handled with care and shouldn't be handed to non-professionals. Don't be fooled by the fact it's sold in grocery stores at low concentrations.

shadowgovt 3/31/2025|||

Not as bad as FOOF, but still burns on contact to an open sore.

masklinn 3/31/2025||

Pure hydrogen peroxide will do a lot worse than burn on contact with an open sore, unless you mean "set your sore on fire" (though it's more likely to detonate, or spontaneously dissociate into steam and pure oxygen).

Usual solutions for disinfection are 3~5%, at 35% h2o2 will bleach skin, and bite through it.

psunavy03 3/31/2025|||

Read up on the Me-163 if you want to see the craziness that's involved with using high-purity H2O2 as an oxidizer. With a hydrazine/methanol mix fuel to boot.

fch42 4/1/2025||

"Ignition" was already mentioned. It has quite a few "anecdotes" about T-Stoff (then German term for 85%+ pure H2O2).

mauvehaus 3/31/2025|||

30% is non-chlorine pool shock, and readily available where I am (VT). As it happens, it's also one of the parts of two part wood bleach. The other part is a solution of NaOH (lye, available in solid form for drain opener). Works great, best used while wearing gloves and a face shield.

Ygg2 3/31/2025|||

Sure. We also call it bleach :P

jerf 3/31/2025||

Bleach, when people refer to the general product you can buy in the grocery store called "bleach", is sodium hypochlorite, not hydrogen peroxide.

You can call hydrogen peroxide bleach, or a bleaching agent, but if you ask your significant other for "bleach" you're not going to get hydrogen peroxide.

Ygg2 4/1/2025||

Speak for yourself, we have/had a bottle of it lying around. Used for bleaching hair and as a cleaning agent. It's not Clorox, but actually says hydrogen peroxide (low dosage though).

icehawk 3/31/2025|||

High test peroxide is used as a rocket monopropellant, and was involved with the loss of the submarines HMS Sidon and Kursk.

Ygg2 3/31/2025||

Many things are used as rocket propellant not least of which O2. As in all things dose makes the poison.

chowells 3/31/2025||

You missed a prefix in monopropellant. That "mono-" is doing a lot of work that you ignored.

Ygg2 4/1/2025||

Oh, then add nitrous oxide. There, problem solved.

> That "mono-" is doing a lot of work that you ignored.

Ironic, given they generally produce less thrust.

tverbeure 3/31/2025||

I will always reread the story about Satan's Kimchi.

__MatrixMan__ 3/31/2025||

In case you weren't dissuaded by the article, here's the synthesis procedure that it starts off by referencing: https://sci-hub.st/https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-1139(00)803...

mouse_ 3/31/2025||

I clicked that permalink to lateral science ("Blown up or poisoned") and unfortunately the website appears to be hacked. :(

doug-moen 3/31/2025||

The page is archived, and it is a fun read: https://web.archive.org/web/20111229065146/http://www.latera...

bovermyer 3/31/2025||

I wonder if you can still order a kilo of "Satan's kimchi" from that supplier in China. If you ever could.

rbanffy 3/31/2025||

Check the address. If the building is still standing, then no.

araes 4/1/2025||

They don't appear to offer Dioxygen Difluoride (O2F2, CAS: 7783-44-0) [1] any longer.

[1] https://commonchemistry.cas.org/detail?cas_rn=7783-44-0

Closest they now offer is Tungsten difluoride dioxide (WO2F2, CAS: 14118-73-1). [2]

[2] http://www.sagechem.com/product/1037013

If you go to: R501 Tower A, New Youth Plaza, 8 Jia Shan Road, Hangzhou, China [3] you could ask in person.

[3] https://www.hxchem.net/English/hycontactlizi3865.html

Almost interested in sending them an email out of boredom just to see whether they make it with custom synthesis.

narrator 3/31/2025|

A. G. Streng would probably have been forgotten about like so many if he hadn't been such a risk taking experimental chemist. Now someone's probably going to make a movie or comic book about him.

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