We'll keep up the chemical theme that we've been following lately with another Dorky Poll to pass the time while I'm in lab all morning. We're not going to do all of the columns of the periodic table (does anybody really have a favorite transition metal?), but a couple more demand opinions. So, what's your favorite halogen?
Your opinion is important to us. Please choose only one.
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Got to be iodine, right? Essential trace mineral. Antiseptic. Handy for home-made explosives. What more could you want?
I've never smelled At or F. I don't find Cl or I smells objectionable. I actually like the smell of Br.
"does anybody really have a favorite transition metal?"
Why, sure. I like iron. Although I did have a bit of a crush on cobalt when I was younger. And Jack Williamson seemed to have something of a thing for rhodium.
How can you have a favourite? There's Fluorine, which attacks just about everything with a vengeance. Then, there's Chlorine, that lovely war gas with it's yellow-green colour. Can't forget about that nice liquid Bromine. And, what about that cute purple Iodine? Then, there's that Astatine which not only reacts like crazy but is also radioactive. They're all simply wonderful!
Dave
Tough call between iodine and fluorine. Ultimately I had to go with fluorine, as not only is it good for teeth, F-18 is used for PET scanning, and PET scanning is cool.
As an evironmental toxicologist, got to love chlorine for all those PCBs and PCDD/Fs that keep me busy!
No contest: it has to be fluorine. That stuff is so reactive that it will oxidize oxygen (!) and the heavier noble gases.
Gotta go with BR. In EtOH, it's the best etchant for cuprate superconductors.
It's got to be iodine......... it's the most interesting of them, if only because it's pronounced differently when you cross the Atlantic Ocean.
Fl. I fondly recall my high-school chemistry teacher who had a great raspy voice due to accidentally inhaling Florine much earlier in his life.
Astatine. Gotta love Ms. Mysterious, least-seen and least-known of the elements.
Iodine. Sanitizing solution for brewing.
Gotta be fluorine. That super-reactivity makes it so fascinating.
The ion trappers in your audience are eagerly awaiting the alkaline earth metals poll.
CN
re: transition metals, every chemist definitely has one (or two). I'd suspect palladium (motto: I catalyze everything!) polls very high.
Normally, I would have picked chlorine, my-go to halogen and the only one I have around the lab in elemental form. However, I am currently very annoyed at chlorine for its juvenille, on-again/off-again relationship with a Certain Metalloid, and instead chose its more mature, sedate brother, bromine.
Kind of torn between chlorine and bromine, but I'll have to go with chlorine. I get more use out of it since I have to use hydrochloric acid for pH sensitive work sometimes.