I've recently learned of a compound named Chlorine trifluoride a powerful fluorinating agent. The common way to store it seems to be in regular steel drums where it flash oxidizes the inside of the drum to make a metallic fluoride. This layer of metallic fluoride keeps the substance from reacting any further with the steel drum and passivates the steel from further oxidation by fluorine. My question is if steel that has been fluorinated comes in contact with water and oxygen(or even worse a hydrogen peroxide water mix) is the metallic flouride layer fully passivated or is it pourous like the magnetite layer used in gun bluing? Would this result in any better corrosion resistance than chrome plating, aluminizing, bluing or galvanizing? I can't seem to find any studies on the mechanical properties of the fluorine passivated layer of steel and I am curious if anyone has any experience with working with either flouring gas and steel or even chlorine trifuoride itself.
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1$\begingroup$ I am very dubious of the premise that some iron fluoride compound is protective. HF has been used in alkylation of hydrocarbons for many years; It is less common now because costly alloys ( Hastelloys , Monels, etc) are necessary to control corrosion. Keep in mind the competing process uses concentrated sulfuric acid as it is less corrosive to steel. $\endgroup$– blacksmith37Nov 22, 2019 at 16:28
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