We used to do this under pressure in heavy-walled alloy cylinders being irradiated with megawatts of microwave energy behind a blast shell facing into the deep woods at the far end of the specialty fluorochemical research plant.
It was great, I enjoyed reading so much I forgot how much skill and patience it takes to write that way with such empathy for the reader. Even calling the chemicals names like 15 and 16 is a wonderful abstraction because the point of the article is how difficult the job is, not to teach chemistry and bamboozle people. I hope someone in the Haskell space can do this!
I agree. This had the style of a "Things I won't Work With" column, except that those generally describe experiments done for pure research (or possibly military/rocketry applications).
It's interesting that chemistry for pharmaceutical purposes can involve similarly nasty substances.
The article also does a great job conveying how much of a frustration minuscule yields must be.
I had the same thought, this is wonderfully written. Detailed but accessible for a technically inclined lay audience, fun but not over the top. It's extremely hard to do, so well done and thanks to the author :)