Outside of the radioactive elements there aren’t really any “unicorns” when it comes to finding samples of the elements. Sure, some are hideously expensive and others are hazardous or pose some other difficulty in acquiring a good sample of. Fluorine however poses a nearly insurmountable challenge in that it is terrifying reactive. In chemistry those elements which are least reactive - the noble gases - and those which are most reactive are separated by something as seemingly insignificant as a single electron in their configuration shells. Neon, just one over on the periodic table, with a perfectly harmonious ten such electrons, admits no outsiders and is supremely stable just as is. Missing just one such electron, fluorine on the other hand is mortified to be left with such an easily fillable gap. Spare an electron, anyone?!

Thus when this gas comes into contact with practically anything else it voraciously grabs whatever electron it can from that donor element and holds on for dear life. Overcoming that natural force to once again leave fluorine in its elementary state thus becomes one of the most challenging tasks a materials engineer could have to deal with. In and of itself that’s a bad enough problem but where other elements after laboriously being isolated will remain in their elemental state without much difficulty afterwards fluorine is another monster entirely. It is so reactive that it can rip apart the famously inert chemical silicon dioxide…. better known of course as glass. For industrial purposes fluorine is therefore stored in specially treated metal dispensers. For decorative purposes, though, what do you do if you want to “see” your sample if that sample can’t be contained in just about any transparent substance?

There are two possible solutions. One, which we have been following for a number of years, is to dampen that reactivity down to the point where it will not harm the glass. A mixture of about 30% fluorine to 70% helium (along with specially treated glass) has been found to make a stable presentation ampule which can then be sealed in acrylic.

But what if you’re a purist (pardon the pun) and want your elemental samples to be as pure as possible? A sensible person could reason that, being a gas, it’s not like you can tell the difference visually. And you’re looking at it through glass and acrylic. Yes, yes, yes. That’s all well and good but still. You want a pure fluorine sample and you want to be able to know that that little bubble in there is the real deal. Well then, this is going to be tough. As shown and described in a process by a supplier to Theodore Gray and his set of elements, it is technically possible even if extremely difficult.

Our precious few samples of fluorine were made in a lab in Germany. There is a hint of opacity at the towards the sealed end of the ampule caused by errant atoms of who-knows-what released upon heat sealing the tip. If anything, it is testament to the destructive power of this gas. The genius of this particular approach is in designing a sacrificial coating which does not significantly degrade the transparency and which at the same time leaves no residues which may form corrosive byproducts that could eventually compromise the seal.

It’s up to you to decide whether all this work is worth nearly twice the asking price of the regularly offered fluorine sample when there’s zero obvious differences asides from a slightly bigger ampule. All the same, we’re very very happy to finally offer this element in its pure form!