International Regulatory Trend and Development of Decomposition Techniques for Environmentally Persistent Organofluorine Compounds

Abstract

Organofluorine compounds have been widely used in industrial and consumer applications, owing to their specific characters such as high thermal and chemical stability. After it became clear that some of them, particularly, perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), bioaccumulate in the environment, international legal measures regarding the production, use, and import and export of several organofluorine compounds are being implemented. Hence, it is desirable to develop effective methodologies for decomposing these compounds to environmentally harmless species under mild conditions. If they could be decomposed to F^– ions by means of environmentally benign techniques, the well-established protocol for the treatment of F^– ions could be used: Ca²⁺ is added to the system to form CaF₂, which is a raw material for hydrofluoric acid. Thus, the development of such techniques would allow for the recycling of fluorine resource, the global demand for which is increasing. We describe herein the international regulatory trend for organofluorine compounds. We also describe our developed methodologies for efficient decomposition of cutting-edge fluorinated materials (ionic liquid and polymers) to F^– ions.