Degradability of an Acrylate-Linked, Fluorotelomer Polymer in Soil
- 1 July 2009
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Chemical Society (ACS) in Environmental Science & Technology
- Vol. 43 (17), 6617-6623
- https://doi.org/10.1021/es9002668
Abstract
Fluorotelomer polymers are used in a broad array of products in modern societies worldwide and, if they degrade at significant rates, potentially are a significant source of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and related compounds to the environment To evaluate this possibility, we incubated an acrylate-linked fluorotelomer polymer in soil microcosms and monitored the microcosms for possible fluorotelomer (FT) and perfluorinated-compound (PFC) degradation products using GC/MS and LC/MS/MS. This polymer scavenged FTs and PFCs aggressively necessitating development of a multistep extraction using two solvents. Aged microcosms accumulated more FTs and PFCs than were present in the fresh polymer indicating polymer degradation with a half-life of about 870-1400 years for our coarse-grained test polymer. Modeling indicates that more-finely grained polymers in soils might have half-lives of about 10-17 years assuming degradation is surface-mediated. In our polymer-soil microcosms, PFOA evidently was lost with a half-life as short as 130 days, possibly by polymer-catalyzed degradation. These results suggest that fluoratelomer-polymer degradation is a significant source of PFOA and other fluorinated compounds to the environment.Keywords
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