> What’s left behind, Trang says, is mostly easily captured fluorine ions, and a mixture of harmless, naturally occurring carbon and oxygen containing byproducts, her team reports today in Science.
> Roughly 40% of PFAS compounds contain carboxylic acid groups, and thus could potentially be degraded by the new approach, Trang says. Though it has yet to be tested in the field, she adds that the most likely strategy would be to use conventional means to filter PFAS chemicals from, say drinking water, and then treat them off-site.
> The method doesn’t work on all types of PFAS, however. Compounds used in flame retardants and batteries, for example, contain a sulfonate group instead of a carboxylic acid group and won’t break down with this approach.
PFAS seems to be used in keeping water out, so that makes sense. I suppose we might be able to find PFAS anywhere products are exposed to water with negative consequences.
> Roughly 40% of PFAS compounds contain carboxylic acid groups, and thus could potentially be degraded by the new approach, Trang says. Though it has yet to be tested in the field, she adds that the most likely strategy would be to use conventional means to filter PFAS chemicals from, say drinking water, and then treat them off-site.
> The method doesn’t work on all types of PFAS, however. Compounds used in flame retardants and batteries, for example, contain a sulfonate group instead of a carboxylic acid group and won’t break down with this approach.