Per/polyfluoroalkyl substances production, applications and environmental impacts
Abstract
The per/polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are growing contaminants which are extremely difficult to get degraded naturally. PFAS have been produced for nearly a century using electrochemical flourination and more relomerization processes. High chemical resistance, hydrophobicity, lipophobicity, heat resistace, extremly low friction coefficient make this class of chemicals invaluable for many applications. These same properties useful unfortunately make them 'forever chemicals' once released into the envrironment. This review focuses on the production and applications of PFAs, determining the concentration of PFAs in environmental and biological matrices and their efficient degradation. Various methods of detection of PFAS have been developed but insitu methods of detction are still in the early stages of development. Current chemical and biological remediation technologies are expensive/not effective and thus new remediation technolgies must be developed. It is imperative to focus on methods for detection of the short chain PFAS with their projected increased use.
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PFAS are synthetic chemicals widely used in industrial and commercial applications.
“Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are synthetic chemicals that have been widely used in industrial and commercial applications”
From Molecular characteristics of emerging perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and dissolved organic matter (DOM) in surface waters around fluorine-related industries in a Chinese Megacity (2025) · cites this paper as Dhore and Murthy, 2021
Cites
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Perfluoroalkyl chain-length-dependent environmental fate and treatment outcomes of PFAS in water
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- Authors
- Dhore, R., & Murthy, G. S.
- Affiliations
- Indian Institute of Technology Indore (IN)
- Venue
- Bioresource Technology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-12
- Volume
- 341
- Pages
- 125808
- ISSN
- 0960-8524 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3194826932
- Cited by
- 179
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 35 · 2025: 59 · 2024: 51 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 13
- FWCI
- 1.54
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- Bioresource Technology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, India
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances research
- Life Sciences › Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics › Pharmaceutical Science › Fluorine in Organic Chemistry
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Environmental Chemistry and Analysis
- Keywords
- per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, electrochemical fluorination, environmental contamination, biological matrices, PFAS degradation, PFAS detection, remediation strategies, short-chain PFAS, persistent contaminants
- MeSH terms
- Environment, Fluorocarbons, Water Pollutants, Chemical
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