Araki Taichi, Ota Hibiki, Murata Yusuke, Sumii Yuji, Hamaura Jin, Adachi Hiroaki, Kagawa Takumi, Hori Hisao, Escorihuela Jorge, Shibata Norio
Department of Life Science and Applied Chemistry, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Gokiso, Showa-ku, Nagoya, 466-8555, Japan.
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Kanagawa University, 3-27-1 Rokkakubashi, Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama, 223-8686, Japan.
Nat Commun. 2025 Jul 15;16(1):6526. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-61819-6.
Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and other fluoropolymers are widely used because of their exceptional chemical resistance and thermal stability. However, their disposal poses a significant environmental challenge. Conventional methods for degrading PTFE either require high temperatures or rely on complex reagents and often neglect efficient fluorine recovery. Herein, we present an approach for the room-temperature defluorination of PTFE using sodium dispersion, enabling the conversion of PTFE into sodium fluoride (NaF) under mild conditions. This method not only eliminates the need for elevated temperatures, but also demonstrates high yields of fluoride ion recovery, reaching up to 97% under optimized conditions. We further extend the application of this method to non-polymer, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), including perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorobutanesulfonic acid (PFBS) and trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), achieving similarly high yields of NaF with appropriate adjustments of the reaction time and reagent amounts.
聚四氟乙烯（PTFE）和其他含氟聚合物因其卓越的耐化学性和热稳定性而被广泛使用。然而，它们的处理对环境构成了重大挑战。传统的降解PTFE的方法要么需要高温，要么依赖复杂的试剂，而且常常忽视高效的氟回收。在此，我们提出了一种使用钠分散体在室温下对PTFE进行脱氟的方法，能够在温和条件下将PTFE转化为氟化钠（NaF）。该方法不仅消除了对高温的需求，而且还展示了高收率的氟离子回收，在优化条件下可达97%。我们进一步将该方法的应用扩展到非聚合物的全氟和多氟烷基物质（PFAS），包括全氟壬酸（PFNA）、全氟辛酸（PFOA）、全氟丁烷磺酸（PFBS）和三氟乙酸（TFA），通过适当调整反应时间和试剂量，实现了类似的高收率的NaF。
