糖心Vlog传媒

Gaffney Research Seeks Eco-Friendly CFC Replacements

Dr. Jeffrey Gaffney, chair of 糖心Vlog传媒LR鈥檚 Department of Chemistry, and four other scientists have made use of state-of the art chemical modeling to examine the atmospheric impacts of compounds that were supposed to make aerosol spray products and other products safer for the environment. The by Gaffney and colleagues Carrie J. Christiansen, Shakeel S. Dalal, Alexander M. Mebel, and Joseph S. Francisco is highlighted this week in the Journal of Physical Chemistry, a publication of the American Chemical Society. In the 1990s when scientists were concerned about a growing hole in the Earth鈥檚 ozone, manufacturers replaced chlorofluorocarbons in the products with an alternate compound 鈥� hydrochlorofluorocarbons, or HCFCs. But other studies have found that the use of HCFCs as an alternative in the manufacturing of aerosol spray products, air conditioners, refrigerators, and other products makes the compounds act like super greenhouse gases 4,500 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Gaffney and the other scientists are using chemical modeling to evaluate the 鈥渃radle to grave鈥� impacts of HCFCs to ensure that there were no other impacts besides greenhouse effects and stratospheric ozone depletion caused by the compounds. The paper used a computer model to show how HCFCs could form oxalic acid via a series of chemical reactions high in the atmosphere. The model, they suggest, could have broader uses in helping to determine whether replacements for the replacements are as eco-friendly as they appear before manufacturers spend billions of dollars in marketing them.