Imagine an acid that burns through almost any container you put it in. Spill some on your leg, and amputation is the only way to save your life.
It really exists. Itâs called hydrogen fluoride, an acid so powerful that chemists call it a super acid. Itâs also known as the devilâs kimchi.
Acids are actually everywhere around us. Almost everything thatâs mixed in water creates an acid or its opposite, a base.
To understand how they both work and why hydrogen fluoride is satanâs preferred entree, we need to look at how water works.
A glass of water is a glass of H2O molecules all jostling around together. But some H2O molecules in the glass break into two, forming one H and one OH. Both of these have a charge, so theyâre referred to as H+ and OHâ ions. When this happens, the H+ rejoins another H2O molecule to form a H3O+ molecule. This is called âArrhenius theoryâ.
Pure water has the perfect balance of H3O+ and OHâ ions. They cancel each other out.
Itâs not just water. Other chemicals break apart as well.
If they break apart to give a H+ ion, itâs an acid.
[H+ ionsâŠ.. what do they do.]
If they pull the ions from chemicals that wouldnât otherwise give them up, itâs a base.
But if you dissolve some special types of chemicals into water, they will bring in more ions that tip the balance one way or the other.
If it adds H3O+, then the chemical is an acid. If it adds lots of them, itâs a strong acid.
If it adds OHâ, then the chemical is a base. If it adds lots of them, itâs a strong base.
Both of these ions are highly reactive with other substances. For instance, if you pour a strong acid onto metal, the H3O+ ions chemically react with it, which turns it into gas and some residue.
The ions both exist as the balance for each other. You canât have a substance that is both an acid and a base at the same time, because the H3O+ and OHâ ions neutralise each other and just create water.
Because of this, we measure acids and bases on the same scale, called âpotential of hydrogenâ or âpHâ.
The acid that really does eat through everything
https://www.thoughtco.com/the-worlds-strongest-superacid-603639
http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2004/03/03/things_i_wont_touch_1
