Scientists announce they have developed a ‘clean and energy-efficient’ way to recycle Teflon®, one of the world’s most durable plastics.
Scientists from the University of Birmingham and Newcastle University say they have developed a ‘clean and energy-efficient’ way to recycle Teflon® (PTFE). The material is best known for its use in non-stick coatings and other applications that demand high chemical and thermal stability.
The researchers discovered that waste Teflon® can be broken down and repurposed using only sodium metal and mechanical energy – shaking – at room temperature and without toxic solvents.
Publishing their findings in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), researchers reveal a low-energy, waste-free alternative to conventional fluorine recycling.
Associate Professor Dr Erli Lu at the University of Birmingham said that fluorine is traditionally obtained through energy-intensive and heavily polluting mining and chemical processes.
“Our method shows that we can recover it from everyday waste and reuse it directly – turning a disposal problem into a resource opportunity,” Dr Lu said.
Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), best known by the brand name Teflon®, is known for its resistance to heat and chemicals, but those same properties make it almost impossible to recycle.
When burned or incinerated, PTFE releases persistent pollutants known as ‘forever chemicals’ (PFAS), which remain in the environment for decades. This is why traditional disposal methods raise major environmental and health concerns.
Associate Professor Dr Dominik Kubicki, who leads the University of Birmingham’s solid-state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) team, commented: “We used advanced solid-state NMR spectroscopy – one of our specialities at Birmingham – to look inside the reaction mixture at the atomic level.”
“This allowed us to prove that the process produces clean sodium fluoride without any by-products. It’s a perfect example of how state-of-the-art materials characterisation can accelerate progress toward sustainability.”
The process involves grinding sodium metal fragments with Teflon® inside a sealed steel container known as a ball mill, which causes them to react at room temperature.
This breaks the strong carbon–fluorine bonds in Teflon®, converting it into harmless carbon and sodium fluoride, a stable inorganic salt which is widely used in fluoride toothpastes.
The researchers then showed that the sodium fluoride recovered in this way can also be used directly, without purification, to create other valuable fluorine-containing molecules. These include compounds used in pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, and other fine chemicals.
The University of Birmingham says its research provides a ‘blueprint for a circular economy’ for fluorine, in which valuable elements are recovered from industrial waste rather than discarded.