Biodegradation of Fluorinated Alkyl Substances
Abstract
The incorporation of fluorine into organic molecules entails both positive and adverse effects. Although fluorine imparts positive and unique properties such as water-and oil-repellency and chemical stability, adverse effects often pervade members of this compound class. A striking property of long perfluoroalkyl chains is their very pronounced environmental persistence. The present review is the first one designed to summarize recent accomplishments in the field of biodegradation of fluorine-containing surfactants, their metabolites, and structural analogs. The pronounced scientific and public interest in these chemicals has given impetus to undertake numerous degradation studies to assess the sources and origins of different fluorinated analog chemical known to exist in the environment. It was shown that biodegradation plays an important role in understanding how fluorinated substances reach the environment and, once they do, what their fate is. Today, PFOS and PFOA are ubiquitously detected as environmental contaminants. Their prominence as contaminants is mainly due to their extreme persistence, which is linked to their perfluoroalkyl chain length. It appears that desulfonation of a highly fluorinated surfactants can be achieved if an α-situated H atom, in relation to the sulfonate group, is present, at least under sulfur-limiting conditions. Molecules that are less heavily fluorinated can show very complex metabolic behavior, as is the case for fluorotelomer alcohols. Th…
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8:2 FTUCA will either follow the 7:3 FTUCA branch or the 7:2 FTCA branch, leading to 7:2 olefin, 7:2 sFTOH and terminal products such as PFBA, PFPeA, PFHxA, PFHpA and PFOA.
“The 8:2 FTUCA will either follow the 7:3 FTUCA branch or the 7:2 FTCA branch, leading to 7:2 olefin, 7:2 sFTOH and terminal products such as PFBA, PFPeA, PFHxA, PFHpA and PFOA (Fig. 2, Table 3) (Fromel and Knepper, 2010; Hamid et al., 2020a; Parsons et al., 2008; Yu et al., 2016).”
From A review of microbial degradation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS): Biotransformation routes and enzymes (2023) · cites this paper as Fromel and Knepper, 2010
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- Authors
- Frömel, T., & Knepper, T. P.
- Affiliations
- Hochschule Fresenius (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Knepper, Thomas P.
- Venue
- Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology
- Publisher
- Springer New York
- Published
- 2010
- Volume
- 208
- Pages
- 161-177
- ISSN
- 0179-5953 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W160467531
- Cited by
- 119
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 14.22
- Type
- book chapter
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances research
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Environmental Chemistry and Analysis
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Pollution › Microbial bioremediation and biosurfactants
- Keywords
- biodegradation, PFOS, perfluorooctanoic acid, fluorotelomer alcohols, desulfonation, trifluoromethoxy group, environmental persistence, fluorinated polymers
- MeSH terms
- Biodegradation, Environmental, Environmental Pollutants, Hydrocarbons, Fluorinated
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