OPINIONS
OPINIONS
Strange
Occurrence!
By Der Voron
I am
recalling an unexplainable occurrence that happened with me in my youth, about
1990. I was very curious and one of my passions was chemistry. I tried to
electrolyze water solution of sodium chloride (plain salt), and I received some
amount of chlorine. I felt it was not on my level, so I decided to move further
to conduct an experiment with fluorine, electrolyzing a water solution of sodium
fluoride in a glass capacity. I knew I was not going to get fluorine in that way
because of its chemical properties; but I wanted to see how it reacts with
water. I indeed could see that. Suddenly, the capacity exploded right before my
eyes, but I was not anyhow injured by the glass fragments. After that I tried to
find them in the room where I was conducting the experiment, but was unable to
find any.
There is nothing wondrous that the
capacity exploded. During the electrolysis hydrogen that was extracting from the
cathode was accumulating in the water and partially in the air, and active
oxidants like ozone and oxygen fluorides, that were extracting from the anode,
were accumulating in the water and in the air:
2NaF (sodium
fluoride) = (electrolysis) 2Na + F2
2Na + 2H2O = 2NaOH + H2 (hydrogen)
F2
+ H2O -> HF + OF2 (oxygen fluoride) + O2F2
(another kind of oxygen fluoride) + O3 (ozone) + O (atomic oxygen)
[different reaction products]
The explosion
was evidently caused by reaction between hydrogen (a part of which was solved in
the water and another part leaving it from water surface) and ozone, oxygen
fluorides, and atomic oxygen also partially solved in the water and leaving it
from the surface; that is, oxidants that were solved in the water reacted with
the hydrogen solved in the water, and oxidants that left the water from the
surface reacted with hydrogen which was also leaving the water from the surface.
Nothing
wondrous; the wondrous is that there was no injury, and no fragments of the
capacity found after that. I swear by God that this is the absolute truth. If
someone doubts my words, I don't mind to be checked with lie detectors, such as
conventional lie detector or helmet with electrodes.
Der Voron is a writer and translator. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and works as an independent contractor for a computer company. He is the author of "Starcraft". His website is http://starcraft-version1.tripod.com/ and his email is dervoron@lycos.com
