Scientists find a way to make fluorochemicals production much safer

Subject: Economy

Section: External Sector

Context:

Scientists from the University of Oxford have come up with a new way to obtain fluorine atoms, used to manufacture important chemical compounds used in industry and research, in a much safer and less energy-intensive way.

Process of Fluorochemicals production:

Fluorine is a highly reactive element used to make fluorochemicals, which in turn are used to produce plastics, agrochemicals, lithium-ion batteries, and drugs.
Fluorine comes from a calcium salt called calcium fluoride, or fluorspar.
Fluorspar is mined and then treated with sulphuric acid at a high temperature to release hydrogen fluoride (HF).
HF is then made to react with other compounds to create fluorochemicals.

Drawback of this process:

A major downside of this process is that HF is an extremely poisonous and corrosive liquid that irritates the eyes and respiratory tract even at low concentrations.
It also requires special transportation and storage requirements.
Despite stringent safety regulations, HF spills have occurred numerous times in the last decades, sometimes with fatal accidents and detrimental environmental effects.

What is the new method?

The new method produces fluorochemicals through calcium phosphate biomineralisation.
Scientists ground fluorspar in a ball-mill with potassium phosphate.
While fluorine is very reactive, calcium atoms prefer phosphorus even more, so the milling created calcium phosphate and another compound with fluorine atoms. They called the latter Fluoromix.
When Fluoromix was reacted with organic compounds, it could create around 50 fluorochemicals with up to 98% yield.
Future steps of the research group include producing Fluoromix at a larger scale and to figure out how its cost will scale.