What are Perfluorocarbons (PFCs)?
Perfluorocarbons (PFCs) are carbon compounds where all available bond sites are attached to fluorine. These compounds have extremely stable molecular structures and unless they are struck by lightning or happen to be combusted in an incinerator, they are largely immune to the chemical processes that break down most pollutants. Not until the PFCs reach the mesosphere, about 60 kilometers above Earth, do very high-energy ultraviolet rays from the sun destroy them. This removal mechanism is extremely slow and as a result PFCs can accumulate in the atmosphere and remain there essentially forever, by any human timeframe. Primary aluminum production and semiconductor manufacture are the largest known human-related sources of two perfluorocarbons – tetrafluoromethane (CF4) and hexafluoroethane (C2F6).
