Et3N-Enabled Electrochemical PFAS Defluorination for Scalable Fluoride Recovery

Abstract

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistent environmental pollutants, but they also represent a fluorine-rich reservoir, making fluoride recovery from PFAS an attractive and sustainable approach to fluorine reuse. However, methods that enable scalable and high-fluoride recovery from PFAS remain scarce. Here, we report an Et3N-enabled electrochemical strategy for PFAS degradation and fluoride recovery under mild conditions. The introduction of Et3N plays a central role in the system, enabling nearly complete defluorination with high fluoride recovery. In addition, Et3N significantly reduces the sensitivity of the reaction to air and moisture, allowing for simple operation, and it can be readily scaled to the 100 g level. The recovered fluoride can be isolated as LiF, NaF, and KF, and reused in downstream fluorination reactions. These findings establish a practical and scalable electrochemical platform for converting PFAS into synthetically useful fluorine reagents.