If this is your first time reading one of these, Derek Lowe’s “things I won’t work with” series is a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
"[...] it can potentially go on to “burn” things that you would normally consider already burnt to hell and gone, and a practical consequence of that is that it’ll start roaring reactions with things like bricks and asbestos tile."
The MSDS warnings for ClF3 read like the State Department travel advisory warnings for Bhakmut.
> This stuff was first prepared in Germany in 1932 by Ruff and Menzel, who must have been likely lads indeed, because it's not like people didn't respect fluorine back then.
Referring to fluorine’s “gentle and forgiving nature” got a good laugh out of my wife, who has a chemistry degree. It also got me a good education about just how gross elemental fluorine is.