Low-temperature mineralization of perfluorocarboxylic acids
- Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.; OSTI
- Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300354, China.; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
- Key Laboratory of Organofluorine Chemistry, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, P.R. China.
- Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistent, bioaccumulative pollutants found in water resources at concentrations harmful to human health. Whereas current PFAS destruction strategies use nonselective destruction mechanisms, we found that perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (PFCAs) could be mineralized through a sodium hydroxide–mediated defluorination pathway. PFCA decarboxylation in polar aprotic solvents produced reactive perfluoroalkyl ion intermediates that degraded to fluoride ions (78 to ~100%) within 24 hours. The carbon-containing intermediates and products were inconsistent with oft-proposed one-carbon-chain shortening mechanisms, and we instead computationally identified pathways consistent with many experiments. Degradation was also observed for branched perfluoroalkyl ether carboxylic acids and might be extended to degrade other PFAS classes as methods to activate their polar headgroups are identified.
- Research Organization:
- Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- DOE Contract Number:
- SC0001329
- OSTI ID:
- 1980742
- Journal Information:
- Science, Journal Name: Science Journal Issue: 6608 Vol. 377; ISSN 0036-8075
- Publisher:
- AAAS
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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