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Is the corrosiveness of an acid at all related to its effectiveness in a battery? Could someone recommend a substance to inflict on my crew?
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I haven’t studied acid and batteries a lot, but at it looking now, it’s weak: for a car battery it is typically 30-50% sulphuric acid, the lower concentration allows produce a smaller current of electricity over time. In comparison, the vats of boiling acid (120C) that I work hands-on with in the semiconductor industry are 85-95% H2SO4. It heats up fast in contact with water or H2O2. The smell is notable and the hydrogen let off by many reactions (if it’s out dripping on things) can lead to more fire/explosion risk. For exposure, You feel it it immediately if you get it on you, and much more than a tiny drop will be acid damage from
GURPS High Tech. Cloth turns into goo right away. If it’s dilute, you may not notice until you do the laundry and there’s holes in your clothes. It won’t eat steel bulkheads as much as discolor and etch the surface and edges, even at full concentration. Plastics used in electrical applications resist it fairly well, so immediate degradation of wire insulation is unlikely. Acids are used in many ways industrially, batteries need not be the only source.
Other systems might also use NH4OH, a strong base (liquid), and lots of its reactions put off ammonia gas. Ammonia gas goes from irritating to deadly depending on density, mildly noxious air would make a good “dangerous over time, but not immediately deadly” device. The damage or effects vary, so you can dial it either way as the crisis continues and needs more or less pressure on the PCs.
A very nasty acid to encounter is dilute (1-50%) HF. (Hydrofluoric Acid). Used for etching glass, or silicon chips, and probably has some uses on a ultra tech ship. No smell, looks and feels like water. It doesn’t burn when it gets on your skin. If you breathe mild concentrations of the odorless vapor, you’ll get nauseous (but may not know the source). If it gets on your skin, and you ignore it (like water or sweat), you’ll start feeling pain a few
hours later. That’s the calcium in the bones decaying. Treated quickly, it can be countered by giving a stronger source of calcium for the HF to react with. Untreated, the extra calcium in the blood leads pretty quickly from the intense pain stage to cardiac arrest
...anyway typing this, I realize you probably don’t want to inflict real-life HF dangers on PCs. The stuff is very much a “hey that’s not fair” substance that doesn’t make a for a fun plot or challenge.
The good news is that the 5 gallon jug of water successfully put out the fire. The bad news is that it wasn’t water. And you die.
No, I haven’t used HF in-game yet.