I'm writing a story in which a character throws a knife containing fluoroantimonic acid contained within hydrofluoric acid, which is itself contained within fluorinated plastic, into a tiger's mouth. Upon hitting the tongue of the tiger, the plastic shatters, causing the acid to be released into the tiger. I want to be accurate in this story, so could someone explain how long it would take this fluoroantimonic acid to melt through the tiger's body?
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1$\begingroup$ Use butter of antimony, and the tiger would run around in anger, and melt into butter. $\endgroup$– DrMoishe PippikCommented Jan 19 at 3:47
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1$\begingroup$ Related: chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/4877/… $\endgroup$– Nilay GhoshCommented Jan 19 at 4:11
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$\begingroup$ This is not Chemistry. It can take as long or as little time as your plot allows, no one would be any the wiser. $\endgroup$– porphyrinCommented Jan 19 at 16:54
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$\begingroup$ Who needs fluoroantimonic acid anyway? The hydrogen fluoride would mess up the tiger all by itself. $\endgroup$– Oscar LanziCommented Jan 19 at 20:49
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$\begingroup$ chemistry.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2874/… $\endgroup$– MithoronCommented Jan 20 at 13:54
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1 Answer
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It would have to be tested, e.g. on fresh meat, tissues, leather of dead animals. It cannot be derived from basic principles.
It would be also matter of mass ratio. With low ratio of mass of a superacid and mass of tissues to get through, it does not matter much how super the acid is. It would get spent along the path.
Comparably, if you read about chlorine trifluoride accident, a liquid putting in fire near everything, the damage was in proportion to its amount. It did not dig a new coal mine.
