The strongest stable oxidizing agent, is a complex of krypton difluoride and antimony pentafluoride. Due to its strong oxidizing effect (oxidizes all elements to higher oxidation states, including oxygen and nitrogen in the air), it is very difficult for it to measure the electrode potential. The only solvent that reacts with it slowly enough is anhydrous hydrogen fluoride.
The most dense substance , is osmium. Its density is 22.5 g/cm3.
The lightest metal- this is lithium. Its density is 0.543 g/cm3.
The most expensive metal- this is Californian. Its current cost is $6,500,000 per gram.
The most common element in earth's crust - this is oxygen. Its content is 49% of the mass of the earth's crust.
The rarest element in the earth's crust- this is astatine. Its content in the entire earth's crust, according to experts, is only 0.16 grams.
The most flammable substance, is apparently a fine zirconium powder. To prevent it from burning, it is necessary to place it in an inert gas atmosphere on a plate made of a material that does not contain non-metals.
Substance with the lowest boiling point, is helium. Its boiling point is -269 degrees Celsius. Helium is the only substance that does not have a melting point at normal pressure. Even at absolute zero it remains liquid. Liquid helium is widely used in cryogenic technology.
The most refractory metal- this is tungsten. Its melting point is +3420 degrees Celsius. It is used to make filaments for light bulbs.
The most refractory material is an alloy of hafnium and tantalum carbides (1:1). It has a melting point of +4215 C.
The most fusible metal, is mercury. Its melting point is -38.87 degrees Celsius. She is also the heaviest liquid, its density is 13.54 g/cm 3 .
Highest solubility in water among solids has antimony trichloride. Its solubility at +25 C is 9880 grams per liter.
The lightest gas, is hydrogen. The mass of 1 liter is only 0.08988 grams.
Heaviest gas at room temperature, is tungsten hexafluoride (bp +17 C). Its mass is 12.9 g/l, i.e. Some types of foam may float in it.
The most acid-resistant metal, is iridium. Until now, not a single acid or mixture thereof is known in which it would dissolve.
Widest range of concentration explosive limits has carbon disulfide. All mixtures of carbon disulfide vapor with air containing from 1 to 50 volume percent carbon disulfide can explode.
The strongest stable acid is a solution of antimony pentafluoride in hydrogen fluoride. Depending on the concentration of antimony pentafluoride, this acid can have a Hammett index of up to -40.
The most unusual anion in salt is an electron. It is part of the 18-crown-6 sodium complex electride.
Records for organic matter
The most bitter substance, is denatonium saccharinate. It was obtained by accident during research on denatonium benzoate. The combination of the latter with the sodium salt of saccharin produced a substance 5 times more bitter than the previous record holder (denatonia benzoate). Currently, both of these substances are used to denature alcohol and other non-food products.
The most powerful poison, is a botulinum toxin type A. Its lethal dose for mice (LD50, intraperitoneal) is 0.000026 μg/kg body weight. It is a protein with a molecular weight of 150,000 produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum.
The most non-toxic organic substance, is methane. When its concentration increases, intoxication occurs due to a lack of oxygen, and not as a result of poisoning.
The strongest adsorbent, was obtained in 1974 from a derivative of starch, acrylamide and acrylic acid. This substance is capable of holding water, the mass of which is 1300 times greater than its own.
The most smelly compounds, are ethyl selenol and butyl mercaptan. The concentration that a person can detect by smell is so small that there are still no methods to accurately determine it. It is estimated to be 2 nanograms per cubic meter of air.
The most powerful hallucinogenic substance, is l-lysergic acid diethylamide. A dose of just 100 micrograms causes hallucinations that last for about a day.
The sweetest substance, is N-(N-cyclononylamino(4-cyanophenylimino)methyl)-2-aminoacetic acid. This substance is 200,000 times sweeter than a 2% sucrose solution, but due to its toxicity, it apparently will not find use as a sweetener. Of the industrial substances, the sweetest is talin, which is 3,500 - 6,000 times sweeter than sucrose.
The slowest enzyme, is a nitrogenase that catalyzes the assimilation of atmospheric nitrogen by nodule bacteria. The complete cycle of converting one nitrogen molecule into 2 ammonium ions takes one and a half seconds.
The most powerful narcotic analgesic is apparently a substance synthesized in Canada in the 80s. Its effective analgesic dose in mice (subcutaneous administration) is only 3.7 nanograms per kilogram of body weight, making it 500 times more potent than etorphine.
Organic matter with the highest nitrogen content is bis(diazotetrazolyl)hydrazine. It contains 87.5% nitrogen. This explosive is extremely sensitive to shock, friction and heat.
Substance with the highest molecular weight is snail hemocyanin (carries oxygen). Its molecular weight is 918,000,000 daltons, which is greater than the molecular weight of even DNA.
Each of you knows that diamond remains the standard of hardness today. When determining the mechanical hardness of materials existing on earth, the hardness of diamond is taken as a standard: when measured by the Mohs method - in the form of a surface sample, by the Vickers or Rockwell methods - as an indenter (as a harder body when studying a body with less hardness). Today, there are several materials whose hardness approaches the characteristics of diamond.
In this case, original materials are compared based on their microhardness according to the Vickers method, when the material is considered superhard at values of more than 40 GPa. The hardness of materials can vary depending on the characteristics of the sample synthesis or the direction of the load applied to it.
Fluctuations in hardness values from 70 to 150 GPa are a generally established concept for solid materials, although 115 GPa is considered to be the reference value. Let's look at the 10 hardest materials, other than diamond, that exist in nature.
10. Boron suboxide (B 6 O) - hardness up to 45 GPa
Boron suboxide has the ability to create grains shaped like icosahedrons. The formed grains are not isolated crystals or varieties of quasicrystals, but are peculiar twin crystals, consisting of two dozen paired tetrahedral crystals.
10. Rhenium diboride (ReB 2) - hardness 48 GPa
Many researchers question whether this material can be classified as a superhard type of material. This is caused by the very unusual mechanical properties of the joint.
The layer-by-layer alternation of different atoms makes this material anisotropic. Therefore, hardness measurements are different in the presence of different types of crystallographic planes. Thus, tests of rhenium diboride at low loads provide a hardness of 48 GPa, and with increasing load the hardness becomes much lower and is approximately 22 GPa.
8. Magnesium aluminum boride (AlMgB 14) - hardness up to 51 GPa
The composition is a mixture of aluminum, magnesium, boron with low sliding friction, as well as high hardness. These qualities could be a boon for production modern cars and mechanisms operating without lubrication. But using the material in this variation is still considered prohibitively expensive.
AlMgB14 - special thin films created using pulsed laser deposition, have the ability to have a microhardness of up to 51 GPa.
7. Boron-carbon-silicon - hardness up to 70 GPa
The basis of such a compound provides the alloy with qualities that imply optimal resistance to chemical influences negative type and high temperature. This material is provided with a microhardness of up to 70 GPa.
6. Boron carbide B 4 C (B 12 C 3) - hardness up to 72 GPa
Another material is boron carbide. The substance began to be used quite actively in various fields of industry almost immediately after its invention in the 18th century.
The microhardness of the material reaches 49 GPa, but it has been proven that this figure can be increased by adding argon ions to the structure of the crystal lattice - up to 72 GPa.
5. Carbon-boron nitride - hardness up to 76 GPa
Researchers and scientists from all over the world have long been trying to synthesize complex superhard materials, with tangible results already achieved. The components of the compound are boron, carbon and nitrogen atoms - similar in size. The qualitative hardness of the material reaches 76 GPa.
4. Nanostructured cubonite - hardness up to 108 GPa
The material is also called kingsongite, borazon or elbor, and also has unique qualities that are successfully used in modern industry. With cubonite hardness values of 80-90 GPa, close to the diamond standard, the force of the Hall-Petch law can cause their significant increase.
This means that as the size of the crystalline grains decreases, the hardness of the material increases - there are certain possibilities for increasing it up to 108 GPa.
3. Wurtzite boron nitride - hardness up to 114 GPa
The wurtzite crystal structure provides high hardness to this material. With local structural modifications, during the application of a particular type of load, the bonds between atoms in the lattice of the substance are redistributed. At this moment, the quality hardness of the material increases by 78%.
2. Lonsdaleite - hardness up to 152 GPa
Lonsdaleite is an allotropic modification of carbon and has a clear similarity to diamond. Solid detected natural material was in a meteorite crater, formed from graphite - one of the components of the meteorite, but it did not have a record level of strength.
Scientists proved back in 2009 that the absence of impurities can provide hardness exceeding the hardness of diamond. High hardness values can be achieved in this case, as in the case of wurtzite boron nitride.
1. Fullerite - hardness up to 310 GPa
Polymerized fullerite is considered in our time to be the hardest material known to science. This is a structured molecular crystal, the nodes of which consist of whole molecules rather than individual atoms.
Fullerite has a hardness of up to 310 GPa, and it can scratch a diamond surface like regular plastic. As you can see, diamond is no longer the hardest natural material in the world; harder compounds are available to science.
So far, these are the hardest materials on Earth known to science. It is quite possible that new discoveries and breakthroughs in the field of chemistry/physics will soon await us, which will allow us to achieve higher hardness.
Man has always sought to find materials that leave no chance for his competitors. Since ancient times, scientists have been looking for the hardest materials in the world, the lightest and the heaviest. The thirst for discovery led to the discovery of an ideal gas and an ideal black body. We present to you the most amazing substances in the world.
1. The blackest substance
The blackest substance in the world is called Vantablack and consists of a collection of carbon nanotubes (see carbon and its allotropes). Simply put, the material consists of countless “hairs”, once caught in them, the light bounces from one tube to another. In this way, about 99.965% of the light flux is absorbed and only a tiny fraction is reflected back out.
The discovery of Vantablack opens up broad prospects for the use of this material in astronomy, electronics and optics.
2. The most flammable substance
Chlorine trifluoride is the most flammable substance ever known to mankind. It is a strong oxidizing agent and reacts with almost all chemical elements. Chlorine trifluoride can burn concrete and easily ignite glass! The use of chlorine trifluoride is practically impossible due to its phenomenal flammability and the impossibility of ensuring safe use.
3. The most poisonous substance
The most powerful poison is botulinum toxin. We know it under the name Botox, which is what it is called in cosmetology, where it has found its main application. Botulinum toxin is Chemical substance, which is secreted by the bacteria Clostridium botulinum. In addition to the fact that botulinum toxin is the most toxic substance, it also has the largest molecular weight among proteins. The phenomenal toxicity of the substance is evidenced by the fact that only 0.00002 mg min/l of botulinum toxin is enough to make the affected area deadly to humans for half a day.
4. The hottest substance
This is the so-called quark-gluon plasma. The substance was created by colliding gold atoms at near light speed. Quark-gluon plasma has a temperature of 4 trillion degrees Celsius. For comparison, this figure is 250,000 times higher than the temperature of the Sun! Unfortunately, the lifetime of matter is limited to a trillionth of one trillionth of a second.
5. The most caustic acid
In this nomination, the champion is fluoride-antimony acid H. Fluoride-antimony acid is 2×10 16 (two hundred quintillion) times more caustic than sulfuric acid. It is a very active substance and can explode if a small amount of water is added. The fumes of this acid are deadly poisonous.
6. The most explosive substance
The most explosive substance is heptanitrocubane. It is very expensive and is used only for scientific research. But the slightly less explosive octogen is successfully used in military affairs and in geology when drilling wells.
7. The most radioactive substance
Polonium-210 is an isotope of polonium that does not exist in nature, but is manufactured by humans. Used to create miniature, but at the same time, very powerful energy sources. It has a very short half-life and is therefore capable of causing severe radiation sickness.
8. The heaviest substance
This is, of course, fullerite. Its hardness is almost 2 times higher than that of natural diamonds. You can read more about fullerite in our article The Hardest Materials in the World.
9. The strongest magnet
The strongest magnet in the world is made of iron and nitrogen. At present, details about this substance are not available to the general public, but it is already known that the new super-magnet is 18% more powerful than the strongest magnets currently in use - neodymium. Neodymium magnets are made from neodymium, iron and boron.
10. The most fluid substance
Superfluid Helium II has almost no viscosity at temperatures close to absolute zero. This property is due to its unique property of leaking and pouring out of a vessel made of any solid material. Helium II has prospects for use as an ideal thermal conductor in which heat does not dissipate.
Among substances, they always try to single out those that have the most extreme degree of a certain property. People have always been attracted to the hardest materials, the lightest or heaviest, easy and refractory. We invented the concept of an ideal gas and an ideal black body, and then tried to find natural analogues as close as possible to these models. As a result, man managed to find or create amazing substances.
1. 
This substance is capable of absorbing up to 99.9% of light, an almost perfect black body. It was obtained from specially connected layers of carbon nanotubes. The surface of the resulting material is rough and practically does not reflect light. The areas of application for such a substance are vast, from superconducting systems to improving the properties of optical systems. For example, through the use of such material it would be possible to improve the quality of telescopes and greatly increase the efficiency of solar panels.
2. 
Few people haven't heard of napalm. But this is only one of the representatives of the class of strong flammable substances. These include styrofoam, and especially chlorine trifluoride. This powerful oxidizing agent can ignite even glass and reacts violently with almost all inorganic and organic compounds. There are known cases when a spilled ton of chlorine trifluoride as a result of a fire burned 30 centimeters deep into the concrete surface of the site and another meter of gravel and sand cushion. There were attempts to use the substance as a chemical warfare agent or rocket fuel, but they were abandoned due to too great a danger.
3. 
The strongest poison on earth is also one of the most popular cosmetics. We are talking about botulinum toxins, used in cosmetology under the name botox. This substance is a waste product of the bacteria Clostridium botulinum and has the highest molecular weight among proteins. This is what determines its properties as the most powerful toxic substance. 0.00002 mg min/l of dry matter is enough to make the affected area fatal to humans for 12 hours. In addition, this substance is perfectly absorbed from the mucous membranes and causes severe neurological symptoms.
4. 
Nuclear bonfires burn in the depths of stars, reaching unimaginable temperatures. But man managed to get closer to these figures, obtaining a quark-gluon “soup”. This substance has a temperature of 4 trillion degrees Celsius, which is 250 thousand times hotter than the Sun. It was obtained by colliding gold atoms at almost light speed, as a result of which neutrons and protons were melted. True, this substance existed for only a trillionth of one trillionth of a second and occupied one trillionth of a centimeter.
5. 
In this nomination, the record holder is fluoride-antimony acid. It is 21019 times more caustic than sulfuric acid, capable of melting glass and exploding when water is added. In addition, it emits deadly toxic fumes.
6. 
HMX It is the most powerful explosive and is also resistant to high temperatures. This is what makes it indispensable in military affairs - for creating shaped charges, plastics, powerful explosives, and fillers for fuses of nuclear charges. HMX is also used for peaceful purposes, for example, when drilling high-temperature gas and oil wells, and also as a component of solid rocket fuel. HMX also has an analogue, heptanitrocubane, which has even greater explosive power, but is also more expensive, and therefore used more in laboratory conditions.
This substance does not have stable isotopes in nature, but it generates a huge amount of radioactive radiation. Some of the isotopes, " polonium-210", is used to create very light, compact and at the same time very powerful neutron sources. In addition, in alloys with certain metals, polonium is used to create heat sources for nuclear plants; in particular, such devices are used in space. Moreover, due to the short half-life of this isotope, it is a highly toxic substance that can cause severe radiation sickness.
8. 
In 2005, German scientists constructed a substance in the form of a diamond nanorod. It is a collection of diamonds on a nanoscale. Such a substance has the lowest degree of compression and the highest specific density known to mankind. In addition, a coating made of such a material will have enormous wear resistance.
9. 
Another creation of specialists from laboratories. It was obtained on the basis of iron and nitrogen in 2010. For now, the details are kept secret, since the previous substance in 1996 could not be reproduced again. But it is already known that the record holder has 18% stronger magnetic properties than the closest analogue. If this substance becomes available on an industrial scale, then we can expect the emergence of powerful electromagnetic motors.
10. The strongest superfluidity
The most expensive metal in the world and the densest substance on the planet
Posted 02/01/2012 (valid until 02/01/2013)
There are a lot of different metals and precious stones in nature, the cost of which is very high for most of the planet’s inhabitants. About gems people more or less have an idea which ones are the most expensive, which ones are most valued. But, this is how things are with metals; most people, besides gold and platinum, no longer know expensive metals. What is the most expensive metal in the world? People's curiosity knows no bounds; they are in search of answers to the most interesting questions. Finding out the cost of the most expensive metal on the planet is not a problem, since this is not secret information.
Most likely, this is the first time you have heard this name - Osmium isotope 1870s. This chemical element is the most expensive metal in the world. You may have seen the name of such a chemical element in the periodic table under number 76. The Osmium isotope is the densest substance on the planet. Its density is 22.61 g/cm3. Under normal standard conditions, osmium is silvery in color and has a pungent odor. This metal belongs to the group of platinum metals. This metal is used in the production of nuclear weapons, pharmaceuticals, aerospace, and sometimes in jewelry.
But now the main question is: how much does the most expensive metal in the world cost? Now its cost on the black market is $200,000 per gram. Since obtaining the 1870s isotope is a very difficult task, few people will undertake this task. Previously, in 2004, Kazakhstan officially offered one gram of pure Osmium isotope for $10,000. Kazakhstan at one time became the first expert in expensive metal; no other country offered this metal for sale.
Osmium was discovered by the English chemist Smithson Tennant in 1804. Osmium is obtained from enriched raw materials of platinum metals by calcining this concentrate in air at temperatures of 800-900 degrees Celsius. And scientists are still adding to the periodic table, obtaining elements with incredible properties.
Many will say that there is an even more expensive metal - California 252. The price of California 252 is $6,500,000 per 1 gram. But it is worth considering the fact that the world supply of this metal is only a few grams. Since it is produced only in two reactors in Russia and the USA, 20-40 micrograms per year. But its properties are very impressive: 1 µg of californium produces more than 2 million neutrons per second. Last years this metal is used in medicine as a point source of neutrons for local treatment of malignant tumors.
