[jdurg]

I was digging around on some messageboards and found an old thread on element collecting which had grown to massive propotions.  As I was bored, I read through from the beginning and found a link to a German Site which has some REALLY neat element samples there, but the entire site was in German.  I don't understand a lick of German, but I decided to e-mail the person and see if they understood and could communicate in English.  This was because on their site they are offering ampoules of fluorine gas!  http://www.elemente.at.cx/ is the site and they have more than just fluorine.

I used a free online translator to translate a bunch of what he had to say about the fluorine, and found out that he uses pure quartz tubes which are free of alkali metal contaminants.  As a result, the fluorine doesn't readily attack it as long as there isn't any HF in there.  The fluorine is also purified and dried through a multi-part process which uses dry ice to cool the fluorine and crystalize out water impurities and other possible contaminants.  This "dry" fluorine gas is then diluted with helium to a ratio of 67% helium and 33% F₂.  This completely retards any possible attack from the fluorine due to the dilution.  (However, I would think that once the ampoule has been stored upright, the fluorine would settle to the bottom as it's much denser than helium).  So the gas isn't pure fluorine, but it is fluorine gas.  I've asked him a few questions to see if the color of the gas is visible inside the ampoule, and whether the ampoule will survive having the fluorine in there.  Hopefully he'll say yes on both accounts, and then I can have some fluorine gas!  

[thaqrhys]

I just joined with chemicalforums.com.

And I read your posting about fluorine.
I know this posting has been too old but knowledge is not limited, right..

I also have serious enthusiasm as yours about the precipitation of fluorine gas.

What did they say about it? And how much they offer the fluorine per bottle?

thanks and nice to know you.

[constant thinker]

There are a couple other threads (on this board I believe) that have to do with element collecting. You may want to do a quick forum search.

By the way, now that this post has resurfaced, how has your ampoule stood the test of time (over 2 years)/did you even get it at all jdurg?

[macman104]

jdrug, this is so cool.  I was wondering, do you ever wonder about the dangers when you are preparing some of these gases?  Also, is there a gallery somewhere that you have pictures of your elements?  This is by far the coolest collection.  I've never heard of people making and collecting their own elements!

[billnotgatez]

I believe many of these pictures came from his collection.

http://www.chemicalforums.com/index.php?page=periodictable