With Fluorine in the Tail (IMAGE)

Aarhus University

With Fluorine in the Tail

Caption

Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) constitute a group of compounds where one end of the molecule consists of a carbon chain in which all the hydrogen atoms are replaced by fluorine atoms. This so-called perfluoroalkyl "tail" can be short or long, but the strong C-F bonds make the tail more or less impossible to degrade, compared to the more well known CFC-bonds. The best known PFAS is PFOS with an eight-chained perfluoroalkyl tail.

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Robert Letcher and Rune Dietz

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