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1H a/b/c - Pesticides, pharmaceuticals, perfluoroalkylated substances, antibiotics (WEP/13) Environmental fate studies of fluorotelomer intermediates and fluorotelomer-based surfactants and polymers. Berti, William1, Wang, Ning1, Szostek, Bogdan2, Kennedy, Mark2, Kaiser, Mary1, Buck, Robert3, 1 DuPont Central Research & Development, Wilmington, DE, USA2 DuPont Haskell Laboratory, Newark, DE, USA3 DuPont Chemical Solutions Enterprise, Wilmington, DE, USA ABSTRACT- Fluorotelomer intermediates are used to manufacture fluorotelomer-based surfactants and polymers, which provide unique properties in a wide variety of consumer products. Fluorotelomer intermediates were initially selected for study because they were expected to be among the possible compounds into which the fluorotelomer-based surfactant and polymer products may potentially degrade. Our environmental fate research has focused primarily on the fluorotelomer intermediate 8-2 Telomer B Alcohol [8-2 TBA; CF3(CF2)7CH2CH2OH], which we have shown to be hydrolytically stable [half-life (t Key words: biodegradation, fluorinated substances, hydrolysis, adsorption/desorption |
) > one year] and non-toxic to microorganisms at concentrations greater than 100 mg 8-2 TBA L-1. Our research in this area has expanded to include environmental fate studies on the fluorotelomer-based surfactants and polymers. We will summarize the environmental fate studies that we have conducted on the 8-2 TBA, including an air/water/soil partitioning experiment. We will also discuss hydrolytic stability and biotransformation experiments that we performed on the fluorinated surfactants and polymers.