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Comment by dodo53 | Hacker News Reader

Wouldn't it be pretty toxic (especially if it's a vapour?) In a sealed component in a datacentre that problem doesn't matter, but they're speculating about home use also.

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Probably not, C-F bonds are extremely stable, so perfluoro compounds are biologically inert. The datasheet says they made some animal inhale 10% (!) Novec gas for 4 hours without effect.

http://multimedia.3m.com/mws/mediawebserver?mwsId=66666UF6EV...

The idea of liquid breathing diving systems is usually tied to a perfluorocarbon.

It has half-life of 5 days in the atmosphere, so it's not that stable. According to the MSDS it and degrades both when exposed to UV and at high temperature (like those present in a structural fire) into hydrogen fluoride gas, which becomes hydrofluoric acid upon contact with moisture (including biological tissue).

Also you're supposed to dike the area if a major spill occurs, but I'm pretty sure that's just MSDS boilerplate.

No, fluorocarbons in general are very inert, with the astonishing result that they're generally less toxic than water.

I don't know about that compound being toxic, but there are some splendidly awful fluorine compounds:

http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2010/02/23/things_i_won...

Though that's completely different, it's an oxidizer.

You have fluorine in your tooth paste. Hell, oxygen can be dangerous, nitrogen is used in a lot of explosives etc etc.

The 3M leaflet suggests that you should avoid breathing it, or getting it on your skin or in your eyes, but that you shouldn't be harmed if you ingest it.

I don't know if that's relative to some of the other nastier stuff they sell.

The 3M page seems to show servers dunked in "semi sealed" cabinets of this stuff, which boils, evaporates, cools, and falls back into the tank.

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