Simple method making water safe from dangerous chemicals

World’s water tainted. Synthetic PFAS (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), which have been linked to cancer and other diseases, have contaminated nearly every drop of water on the planet.

These chemicals can last for thousands of years, contain a Carbon-fluorine bond that is almost impossible to break, making it extremely difficult to eradicate them from water supplies.

PFAS are a class of around 12,000 synthetic chemicals that have been used since the 1940s in non-stick cookware, waterproof makeup, shampoos, electronics, food packaging and countless other products

Researchers devised a “guillotine” solution that uses moderate heat (80-120º C) and inexpensive reagents (dimethyl sulfoxide, and Sodium hydroxide) to remove the “heads” of PFAS, initiating their destruction.

The current work degraded 10 types of perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids and perfluoroalkyl ether carboxylic acids, including perfluorooctanoic acid. The researchers believe their method will work for most PFAS that contain carboxylic acids and hope it will help identify weak spots in other classes of PFAS. They hope these encouraging results will lead to further research that tests methods for eradicating the thousands of other types of PFAS.