Research Finds New, Simple Method to Destroy PFAS

A group of researchers from Northwestern University and the University of California - Los Angeles found that common reagents and low temperatures are enough to break down per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) in water.

Led by Northwestern’s William Dichtel, the team identified the group with charged oxygen atoms positioned at one end of the molecule as the weakest spot in the strong carbon-fluoride bonds in PFAS. They targeted this Achilles’ heel by heating the water to only 248℉ with inexpensive reagents, such as dimethyl sulfoxide and sodium hydroxide.

This new process successfully severed bonds in PFAS, leaving only benign products behind, which matches the PFAS degradation simulated by Ken Houk at UCLA and Yuli Li from Tianjin University.

Currently, this method degrades 10 perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (PFCAs) and perfluoroalkyl ether carboxylic acids (PFECAs). It also destroys two prominent PFAS compounds: perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and GenX.

The team is now on a mission to find the weak spot of other PFAS classes in the hope of finding ways to eliminate more than 12,000 PFAS compounds.

Read the full article here to learn more about this new simple method of breaking down PFAS.

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