Fluorine named the acidic product "fluss-spats-syran" (fluorspar acid). In 1810, the French physicist André-Marie Ampère suggested that hydrogen and an element analogous to chlorine constituted hydrofluoric acid. Sir Humphry Davy proposed that this then-unknown substance be named "fluorine" from fluoric acid and the "-ine" suffix of other halogens. This word, with modifications, is used in most European languages; Greek, Russian, and some others (following Ampère's suggestion) use the name "ftor" or derivatives, from the Greek φθόριος ("phthorios", destructive). The New Latin name "fluorum" gave the element its current symbol F; Fl was used in early papers. Initial studies on fluorine were
Bromine their oxides: as such, it is used to oxidise uranium to uranium hexafluoride in the nuclear industry. Refractory oxides tend to be only partially fluorinated, but here the derivatives KBrF and BrFSbF remain reactive. Bromine trifluoride is a useful nonaqueous ionising solvent, since it readily dissociates to form and and thus conducts electricity. Bromine pentafluoride (BrF) was first synthesised in 1930. It is produced on a large scale by direct reaction of bromine with excess fluorine at temperatures higher than 150 °C, and on a small scale by the fluorination of potassium bromide at 25 °C. It is a very