The mineralization of PCTFE using a mechanochemical approach was investigated. PCTFE was efficiently decomposed into F– and Cl– in the presence of KOH under an ambient air atmosphere. Specifically, when PCTFE was milled with KOH (20 times the initial weight of PCTFE) under air for 9 h, the yields of F– and Cl– reached 99% and 98%, respectively, indicating that quasi-complete mineralization was achieved. Under these conditions, most of the carbon content was retained as water-extractable solid species rather than being released into the gas phase, as evidenced by total organic carbon (TOC) yields of 96% after 7 h and 88% after 9 h. Because the fluorine and chlorine contents were almost completely mineralized, the resulting organic components contained neither fluorine nor chlorine atoms. Consistent with these observations, the oxalate anion was detected, and the majority of the TOC amount was attributable to oxalate. Reactions performed under argon or oxygen, as well as under air in the presence of a small amount of water, revealed that not only oxygen but also water plays a role in the reaction.
Okadome et al. (Thu,) studied this question.