Do you know what makes toothpaste manufacturers confidently declare that their product can help you prevent tooth-decay? There is an ingredient in toothpaste that keeps your teeth strong. Fluorine is the element that prevents dental cavities. And fluorine is present in toothpastes in the form of soluble fluoride.
George Gore, an English chemist, is one among the many scientists, who tried to isolate fluorine. However, Gore’s experiment ended up in an explosion when the fluorine that he had produced reacted with hydrogen in his lab. Many years later, Ferdinand Frederic Henri Moissan, a French chemist, successfully isolated fluorine in 1886. And his discovery led him to win the Nobel Prize in 1906.
It is very difficult to store fluorine because of its corrosive nature. Fluorine gas quickly attacks most metals, and is highly reactive. And for this reason, fluorine is usually found only in compounds. Due to its exploding tendency, fluorine is maintained in hydrofluoric acid. Atomic number of the element is 9, and the symbol is F.
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