DoD is poisoning communities across the US with toxic chemicals

Re:DoD is poisoning communities across the US with toxic che... by remarkEon on Saturday March 27, 2021 @12:35AM (#26599948)

Chemically, why does this kind of material have such staying power? Been a long time since chemistry classes in college, but I’m curious to understand more about why these things are so hard to get rid of. Is there a relationship between their resistance to deteriorating and their ability to suppress flame?

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Re:DoD is poisoning communities across the US with toxic che... by kccqzy on Saturday March 27, 2021 @12:47AM (#26599997)

The carbon-fluorine bond is the strongest bond known in organic chemistry. And PFOS has seventeen of them.

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Re:DoD is poisoning communities across the US with toxic che... by remarkEon on Saturday March 27, 2021 @01:14AM (#26600104)

Thanks. What makes it so strong? Are there any chemical processes known to break down these bonds?

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Re:DoD is poisoning communities across the US with toxic che... by yesenadam on Saturday March 27, 2021 @04:47AM (#26600935)

These pages will I think answer your questions. (Sorry, I don't feel qualified to summarize them.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon%E2%80%93fluorine_bond

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organofluorine_chemistry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluorocarbon

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Re:DoD is poisoning communities across the US with toxic che... by hippira on Saturday March 27, 2021 @02:41AM (#26600453)

As I remember from my A Level Chemistry, a principle of Chemistry is that to chemically break the bond of a chemical, the new products need to be forming a “stronger bond” than the ingredents. Otherwise the ony method left is to bombard the chemical in side a particle accelerators.

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