3 ms·
>>In some ways, "ball milling" is not all that different from the grinding of a mortar and pestle, but at an extremely high intensity, with the balls moving at
by toss1 3y ago
>>In some ways, "ball milling" is not all that different from the grinding of a mortar and pestle, but at an extremely high intensity, with the balls moving at incredible speeds to degrade the PFAS at a molecular level
That's the key point of the article, and it's astonishing that such a mechanical-scale process can degrade the chemical C-F bonds at a sufficiently useful rate. I'd really like to know more about how that actually works at a chemical level, and what is the remaining/resulting "safe by-product"?
- calfuris 3y agoThe journal article is open access and available through the DOI link. Short version, as I understand it (take with more than a grain of salt): the mechanical process does not degrade the C-F bonds at all, but when you grind quartz that is already sufficiently fine it produces some highly reactive species on fresh surfaces which chemically attack the PFAS. At least some of the C-F bonds are replaced with Si-F bonds, though I'm not sure exactly what the products are.
- toss1 3y agothx!