The rapid expansion of the fluorochemicals market has led to a notable advancement in our quality of life. Fluorinated organic molecules play a pivotal role in chemical manufacture. Among their many uses, they find applications as refrigerants, in polymeric materials and as solvents and surfactants. It has been estimated that approximately 20–25% of pharmaceuticals and 30–40% of agrochemicals contain at least one fluorine atom. For example, Lipitor contains a single fluorine atom and led the market for pharmaceutical sales from 1996–2012 generating €93 billion in revenue over 14.5 years.
The carbon–fluorine bond is the strongest known single carbon–element bond, and it is unsurprising that synthetic fluorocarbons persist in the environment. Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) are known to contribute to climate change. For example, HFC-23 has a global warming potential approximately 10,000 times greater than CO2. From the 1st of January 2015, as part of climate change action, the European Union introduced new legislation to control the use of fluorinated gases, including HFCs. This regulation seeks to cut, by containment, reduction and recovery, the emission of fluorinated gases by two-thirds of current levels by 2030. Hydrofluoroolefins (HFOs) are proposed as greener alternatives to HFCs and have been billed as next generation refrigerants. While the global warming potentials of HFOs are lower than HFCs, the long-term effect of these fluorinated gases, and their decomposition products, on the environment is not yet clear. In contrast to mankind, Nature uses fluorine in organic chemistry sparingly. The vast majority of naturally occurring fluorine is in the form of inorganic fluoride, present in mineral forms such as fluorite (CaF2) and cryolite (Na3AlF6).
If new methods could be developed that transform, low-value, environmentally persistent HFCs and HFOs into high-value products, such as pharmaceuticals or agrochemicals, it could re-align the use of these molecules within the fluorochemicals market. Volatile fluorine-containing gases could be used not as end products but as chemical intermediates that never leave the plant. Existing HFCs could be recycled into useful products following recovery at the end of their equipment’s lifetime. If this method also resulted in the formation of inorganic fluoride from fluorinated gases it would represent an environmentally responsible way to return fluorine to the environment and an important step to closing the fluorine cycle.
The decisive objective of this project is to develop new methods to transform environmentally persistent hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and hydrofluoroolefins (HFOs), into reactive chemical building blocks that can be used in chemical manufacture.
