Note that hydrogen fluoride was the first thing featured on that column, even before the name of the series settled down: https://archive.md/gX3xF
> HF has actually been used right out of the cylinder for a long time in Merrifield peptide synthesizers. It’s the traditional way to cleave the peptide off the resin at the final step, so there are actually a lot of people who’ve used the stuff. But it’s in a dedicated apparatus that is (that had better be) well sealed, and people treat it with due respect. At a former employer of mine, there was an accident with one of these machines right before I joined the company. The shout “HF LEAK!” went out into the halls, and I’m told that the whole area set a never-to-be-equaled evacuation record.
By the fire diamond metric, HF is relatively tame, at 4 0 1, except that anything with a health rating of 4 ("very short exposure could cause death or major residual injury") is unsuitable for most purposes. So you can't set it on fire. Doesn't matter.
Thanks for that link, I really do enjoy his writing. "Relatively tame" isn't something I expect to see with a health rating of 4, but I suppose it's an accurate statement when you're talking 4x3 ratings.
> HF has actually been used right out of the cylinder for a long time in Merrifield peptide synthesizers. It’s the traditional way to cleave the peptide off the resin at the final step, so there are actually a lot of people who’ve used the stuff. But it’s in a dedicated apparatus that is (that had better be) well sealed, and people treat it with due respect. At a former employer of mine, there was an accident with one of these machines right before I joined the company. The shout “HF LEAK!” went out into the halls, and I’m told that the whole area set a never-to-be-equaled evacuation record.
By the fire diamond metric, HF is relatively tame, at 4 0 1, except that anything with a health rating of 4 ("very short exposure could cause death or major residual injury") is unsuitable for most purposes. So you can't set it on fire. Doesn't matter.