Environmental Chemistry

E.C. Tuazon, R. Atkinson, "Tropospheric degradation products of CH2FCF3 (HFC-134a)," Journal of Atmospheric Chemistry, 16:301-12, 1993. (Cited in 10 publications through October 1994)

Comments by Roger Atkinson
The primary aim of this paper, according to its authors, was to evaluate the fate of the compound HFC-134a, one of a group of potential replacements for chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). These replacements are being examined as part of the "Alternative Fluorocarbon Environmental Acceptability Study," an ongoing, international, multi-institutional project funded by more than a dozen fluorocarbon manufacturers. The goal of the effort is to determine the most suitable substitutes for the pollutant CFCs, which are gradually being phased out as refrigerants and solvents.

"The replacements are designed to react in the lower layers of the atmosphere and hence avoid transporting chlorine to the stratosphere [the outermost layer of the atmosphere] and depleting the ozone in that level," explains Roger Atkinson, a professor of...