However, fluorine as fluoride ion is very widely disseminated in nature, being more abundant in the mineral kingdom than chlorine. Fluorine normally ranks 13th in most tables of abundance of the elements in the Earth's crustal rocks. The world's main resources of fluorine are locked up in two ores, i.e. fluorspar and phosphate rock. The results of these experiments lead him to the belief, that the only feasible way of isolating the element was low-temperature electrolysis of certain fluorine compounds. He then undertook the electrolysis of anhydrous hydrofluoric acid, although Davy and Faraday had observed previously that the anhydrous acid was not a conductor.
Fluorine is the most electronegative of all elements.
Fluorine can normally replace any hydrogen atom in linear or cyclic organic molecules, making fluorocarbon chemistry deal with a great variety of species, as in hydrocarbon chemistry. The small fluorine atoms can easily shield a carbon chain in comparison with hydrogen atoms. It has been proposed that the ability to dissolve gasses could also stem from the more irregular molecular shape that is obtained upon substitution of hydrogen atoms by fluorine atoms, which would produce numerous large-sized cavities in the liquid fluorocarbons. If two incompatible moieties form part of the same molecule, i.e., if they are linked together by chemical bonding, formation of two macroscopic phases is impossible. The segregation of the segments causes microphase separation, i.e., a structuration of the pure compound into microdomains which can assemble in ordered arrays, e.g., bilayer lamellar structures, hexagonal or cubic mesophases.