iStockphoto / Toxitz
If I’ve heard about Perfluorobutane before today then I must have forgotten about it because that name sounds completely unfamiliar to me. I did some searching around on Google to learn about this ‘anti-helium’ and Perfluorobutane is one of the densest gases known to man. In the everyday world, it can be found in fire extinguishers as a replacement for Halon 1301.
This dude breathes it in and his voice goes so deep it makes the villain Bane sound like a prepubescent boy riding a rollercoaster. He also breathes in Sulfur Hexafluoride before taking a rip of the Perfluorobutane from a balloon. Perfluorobutane is about twice as dense as Sulfur Hexafluoride but both make his voice go incredibly deep in a hurry.
I’m calling this ‘anti-helium’ because a huge inhale of helium makes your voice sound like Mickey Mouse where these two gases do the exact opposite of that. Check it out:
I did a quick Google search and all of the places selling Perfluoropentane appear to be highly regulated labs. Obviously, my interest is piqued. I have no practical purpose for tracking down this gas and inhaling a balloon full but it looks pretty damn entertaining, doesn’t it?
There’s a random Stack Exchange thread about what the densest gas known to man is and it seems like the densest possible would be Uranium Hexachloride (molar mass of 460 g/mol) which would be three times denser than Sulfur Hexafluoride. The molar mass of Perfluorobutane is 338 g/mol so it really is up there in terms the densest possible gases known to man.