It made Robert Bunsen seriously ill, Michael Faraday thought it 'barbaric' to use in battle and even Fritz Haber – the 'father of chemical warfare' – abandoned it after a fatal accident in his lab. This week, Mike Freemantle tells the story of tetramethyldiarsine, otherwise known as cacodyl.

Cacodyl: Chemistry in its element

A weekly tour of the periodic table, from Chemistry World, the magazine of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

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Chemistry

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Cacodyl: Chemistry in its element

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