“The team created a composite of boron nitride and titanium dioxide and discovered that they had a substance with the best of both worlds. It was activated by the UV light in the atmosphere and it was capable of destroying PFOA very quickly. In deionized water, it took less than three hours to break down 99 percent of the PFOA into carbon dioxide, fluorine, and minerals. In salty water, the process takes about nine hours.
The team will now investigate how good this substance is at breaking down other perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) – the broader class of forever chemicals.”
There’s been a lot in the news about PFAS lately–there is tremendous effort being put into addressing this issue and, while faster would be better, progress is being made.