Kerry Labels Assad ‘HITLER’ Despite DINING WITH HIM, British SOLD Syria CHEM Weapons For Civil War

[MineralMan]

50. Let's look at the chemicals sold to Syria by the Brits.

Sodium Fluoride - Commonly used as a source of flouride in toothpaste and as pills. It also has a number of industrial applications. It's not used in the synthesis of Sarin in the normal process of producing that nerve gas. It might have a use for that, but not in the standard way Sarin is made. Given the number of other uses for the chemical, I'd be hesitant to call it a nerve gas ingredient.

Potassium Fluoride - Generally used industrially to convert chlorocarbons to fluorocarbons, it's also not a normal chemical used to create Sarin.

Sarin - Sarin is a chiral molecule because it has four chemically different substituents attached to the tetrahedral phosphorus center.[5] The SP form (the (–) optical isomer) is the more active enantiomer due to its greater binding affinity to acetylcholinesterase.[6][7] The P-F bond is easily broken by nucleophilic agents, such as water and hydroxide. At high pH, sarin decomposes rapidly to nontoxic phosphonic acid derivatives. It is usually manufactured and weaponized as a racemic mixture—an equal mixture of both enantiomeric forms—by the alcoholysis reaction of methylphosphonyl difluoride with isopropyl alcohol:

I don't see either chemical as part of the manufacture of Sarin. I could be wrong, but organophosphates are usually made using phosphorus chemicals, not Sodium fluoride and Potassium fluoride.

A look at Wikipedia for the chemicals tells the tale.

So, this part of the story seems somewhat overstated, at least.