Pre-concentrator for Capture of Trace Fluorocarbons

While fluorocarbons are released in relatively small amounts, they can have half-lives in the atmosphere as long as 50,000 years. However, they have extremely high global warming potential relative to other greenhouse gases, so that even small atmospheric concentrations can have large effect on global temperatures. For this reason, monitoring atmospheric concentrations of these compounds, identifying the sources of their emission, and estimating the quantities released is extremely important. Due to their very low atmospheric concentrations, a method to pre-concentrate the gases to significantly improve detection limits and quantification capabilities is necessary. The proposed research will aim to demonstrate the technical feasibility of novel sorbents that have very high affinity and selectivity for sorption of fluorocarbons due to nanoconfinement and fluorous phase molecular interactions. The sorbent will be used to produce and test a pre-concentrator for these target compounds.