Fluoroantimonic acid is a mixture of hydrogen fluoride and antimony pentafluoride, containing various cations and anions (the simplest being and ). This substance is a superacid that can be over a billion times stronger than 100% sulfuric acid in terms of its protonating ability measured by Hammett function. It even protonates some hydrocarbons to afford pentacoordinate carbocations (carbonium ions). Fluoroantimonic acid is corrosive. For example, it cannot be contained directly in glass carboys, as it attacks glass, but can be stored in containers lined with PTFE (Teflon) or PFA polymers. Chemical composition Fluoroantimonic acid is formed by combining hydrogen fluoride and antimony pentafluoride: SbF5 + 2 HF + H2F+ The speciation (i.e., the inventory of components) of "fluoroantimonic acid" is complex. Spectroscopic measurements show that fluoroantimonic acid consists of a mixture of HF-solvated protons, [ (such as ), and SbF5-adducts of fluoride, [(SbF5)nF]– (such as ). Thus, the formula "" is a convenient but oversimplified approximation of the true composition. Nevertheless, the extreme acidity of this mixture is evident from the exceptionally poor proton-accepting ability of the species present in solution. Hydrogen fluoride, a weak acid in aqueous solution that is normally not thought to have any appreciable Brønsted basicity at all, is in fact the strongest Brønsted base in the mixture, protonating to H2F+ in the same way water protonates to H3O+ in aqueous acid. As a result, the acid is often said to contain "naked protons", though the "free" protons are, in fact, always bonded to hydrogen fluoride molecules. It is the fluoronium ion that accounts for fluoroantimonic acid's extreme acidity. The protons easily migrate through the solution, moving from H2F+ to HF, when present, by the Grotthuss mechanism. Two related products have been crystallized from HF-SbF5 mixtures, and both have been analyzed by single crystal X-ray crystallography. These salts have the formulas and . In both salts, the anion is . As mentioned above, is weakly basic; the larger anion is expected to be a still weaker base. Acidity Fluoroantimonic acid is the strongest superacid based on the measured value of its Hammett acidity function (H0), which has been determined for various ratios of HF:SbF5. The H0 of HF is −15. A solution of HF containing 1 mol % of SbF5 is −20. The H0 is −21 for 10 mol%. For > 50 mol % SbF5, the H0 is between −21 and −23. The lowest attained H0