Fluorine Fluorine Fluorine is a chemical element with symbol F and atomic number 9. It is the lightest halogen and exists as a highly toxic pale yellow diatomic gas at standard conditions. As the most electronegative element, it is extremely reactive, as it reacts with almost all other elements, except for helium and neon. Among the elements, fluorine ranks 24th in universal abundance and 13th in terrestrial abundance. Fluorite, the primary mineral source of fluorine which gave the element its name, was first described in 1529; as it was added to metal ores to lower their melting points for smelting, the
Bromine production in the United States rail access, and difficult highway access, and was shut down in 1945. Dow found a better permanent location at Freeport, Texas, where a seawater extraction plant started in 1940, and a second in 1943. The Freeport plants recovered magnesium, sodium compounds, and chlorine, in addition to the bromine. The Freeport chemical operations are still active, but they stopped extracting bromine in 1969. Brine mining Bromine production in the United States Bromine production in the United States of 225,000 tonnes in 2013 made that country the second-largest producer of bromine, after Israel. The US supplied 29 percent of world production. Since