The ability to surpass the oxidizing ability of oxygen leads to extreme corrosivity against oxide-containing materials often thought as incombustible. Chlorine trifluoride and gases like it have been reported to ignite sand, asbestos, and other highly fire-handicapant materials. In an industrial accident, a spill of 900 kg of chlorine trifluoride burned through 30 cm of concrete and 90 cm of gravel beneath. Fire control/suppression is incapable of suppressing this oxidation, therefore the surrounding area is kept cool until the reaction ceases. The compound reacts violently with water-based suppressors, and oxidizes in the absence of atmospheric oxygen, rendering atmosphere-displacement suppressors such as CO2 and halon completely ineffective. It ignites glass on contact.
"It is, of course, extremely toxic, but that's the least of the problem. It is hypergolic with every known fuel, and so rapidly hypergolic that no ignition delay has ever been measured. It is also hypergolic with such things as cloth, wood, and test engineers, not to mention asbestos, sand, and water — with which it reacts explosively. It can be kept in some of the ordinary structural metals — steel, copper, aluminum, etc. — because of the formation of a thin film of insoluble metal fluoride which protects the bulk of the metal, just as the invisible coat of oxide on aluminum keeps it from burning up in the atmosphere. If, however, this coat is melted or scrubbed off, and has no chance to reform, the operator is confronted with the problem of coping with a metal-fluorine fire. For dealing with this situation, I have always recommended a good pair of running shoes."
Wow. Has this been used in chemical warfare yet?
Under the code name N-stoff ("substance N"), chlorine trifluoride was investigated for military applications by the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in national socialist Germany from slightly before the start of World War II. Tests were made against mock-ups of the Maginot Line fortifications, and it was found to be an effective combined incendiary weapon and poison gas. From 1938, construction commenced on a partly bunkered, partly subterranean 31.76 km2 munitions factory, the Falkenhagen industrial complex, which was intended to produce 50 tonnes of N-stoff per month, plus sarin. However, by the time it was captured by the advancing Red Army in 1944, the factory had produced only about 30 to 50 tonnes, at a cost of over 100 German Reichsmark per kilograma. N-stoff was never used in war
Thermite is where it's atIt burns at over 2,500 degrees
