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19F
Published in Guillaume Madelin, X-Nuclei Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 2022
Until World War II, there was no real commercial production of elemental fluorine, but as uranium enrichment is the largest application of fluorine gas, industrial production of fluorine began during the Manhattan Project as a step in the making of atomic bombs. Fluorine was used to produce uranium hexafluoride (UF6), which in turn was used to separate two uranium isotopes, 235U and 238U, from each other, and is still used nowadays to produce enriched uranium for nuclear power applications. Other commercial applications use fluorine compounds such as fluorite instead of pure fluorine (due to its difficult production), with about half of it used in steelmaking. Its very active chemistry makes fluorine useful in many products, such as polymers, pesticides, antibiotics and toothpastes (fluoride ion F− inhibits dental cavities). Compounds containing a carbon-fluorine (C–F) bond, called fluorocarbons or perfluorocarbons (PFCs), often have very high chemical and thermal stability and can be used as refrigerants, electrical insulation and cookware (such as Teflon). However, PFCs, as well as sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), are greenhouse gases with atmospheric lifetimes of more than 1000 years and global-warming potential. Though their concentrations are very small compared to the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, this very long lifespan in the atmosphere makes them important actors in the global greenhouse effect.
The Environment Today
Published in Anco S. Blazev, Power Generation and the Environment, 2021
Exposure to strontium-90, iodine-131, and other fission products is unrelated to uranium exposure, but may result from medical procedures or exposure to spent reactor fuel or fallout from nuclear weapons. Although accidental inhalation exposure to a high concentration of uranium hexafluoride has resulted in human fatalities, those deaths were associated with generation of highly toxic hydrofluoric acid and uranyl fluoride rather than with uranium itself.
Applied Chemistry and Physics
Published in Robert A. Burke, Applied Chemistry and Physics, 2020
Uranium hexafluoride has a molecular formula of UF6. It is a colorless, volatile crystal that sublimes and reacts vigorously with water. It is highly corrosive and is a radiation risk. The four-digit 4-digit identification number for fissile material containing more than 1% of uranium 235 is 2977; for lower specific activity, the number is 2978. Uranium hexafluoride is used in a gaseous diffusion process for separating isotopes of uranium.
Theoretical study of the mechanism of Te (g) + 3F2 (g)→TeF6 (g)
Published in Molecular Physics, 2022
Fatemeh Hosseini, Hassan Hadadzadeh, Hossein Farrokhpour, Hamidreza Jouypazadeh
The fluorination of metals is an effective method for preparing metal samples for the enrichment of isotopes by gas penetration and gas centrifugation [1–5]. For example, the fluorination of uranium tetrafluoride (UF4) produces uranium hexafluoride (UF6) which is a volatile compound at ordinary temperatures and an exceptionally useful form of uranium feed to the isotope separation. Also, the fluorination reaction has been used as a suitable tool for chemical separation, purification [6–8], and recently in nuclear medicine [9–11].