What was cfc used for

ACS-Hach Programs Learn about financial support for future and current high school chemistry teachers. The language is dry and academic, as is appropriate for the abstract of a scientific paper in the prestigious journal Nature.

The research described in the short paper, however, fell like a scientific bombshell, one whose repercussions would be felt around the world. It also led to F. Sherwood Rowland and Mario J. Crutzen of the Max Plank Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, another pioneer in stratospheric ozone research. That stratospheric ozone absorbs ultraviolet radiation that otherwise would reach the surface of Earth.

At the time, CFCs were in wide use in refrigeration, air conditioning and aerosol spray cans. The compounds are inert and essentially nontoxic, characteristics that made them well-suited for these applications.

These same characteristics, however, also made them a danger to life on Earth. Commemorative Booklet PDF. In the s, refrigeration and air conditioning systems used compounds such as ammonia, chloromethane, propane and sulfur dioxide as refrigerants.

Though effective, the compounds were toxic and flammable, and exposure to them could result in serious injury or death. A team of chemists at Frigidaire led by Thomas Midgely Jr. The team focused their effort on compounds containing carbon and halogens such as fluorine and chlorine.

Such compounds were known to be volatile and chemically inert, both important properties for the team studying their use in refrigeration. Chlorofluoromethanes are being added to the environment in steadily increasing amounts. These compounds are chemically inert and may remain in the atmosphere for years, and concentrations can be expected to reach 10 to 30 times present levels.

Photodissociation of the chlorofluoromethanes in the stratosphere produces significant amounts of chlorine atoms, and leads to the destruction of atmospheric ozone. From an environmental standpoint, ozone is a confusing molecule. But in the stratosphere, the region of the atmosphere from 6 to 31 miles, ozone absorbs potentially damaging ultraviolet UV radiation.

Without a protective ozone layer in the atmosphere, animals and plants could not exist, at least not upon land. Lovelock had measured trichlorofluoromethane CFC in the atmosphere in amounts that suggested that practically all of the CFC ever manufactured was still present in the atmosphere. Rowland decided to devote a portion of his research to understanding the fate of CFCs in the atmosphere. Although CFCs are inert in the lower troposphere, Rowland realized that they can be broken down by UV radiation once they drift up into the stratosphere.

Each chlorine atom would react immediately with an ozone molecule, setting off a chain reaction that would destroy thousands of ozone molecules. In their paper, they estimated that if CFC use was banned immediately, ozone loss would go on for years. If CFC production continued, however, ozone loss would be even greater. Style: MLA. English Language Learners Definition of chlorofluorocarbon. More from Merriam-Webster on chlorofluorocarbon Britannica. Get Word of the Day daily email! Test Your Vocabulary.

Test your vocabulary with our question quiz! Love words? Need even more definitions? Homophones, Homographs, and Homonyms The same, but different. Merriam-Webster's Words of the Week - Nov. Ask the Editors 'Everyday' vs. What Is 'Semantic Bleaching'? How 'literally' can mean "figuratively". Gardiner, and J. Salawitch, S. Wofsy, and J. Logan, Reductions of Antarctic ozone due to synergistic interactions of chlorine and bromine, Nature , , , Garcia, F.

Rowland, and D. Wuebbles, On the depletion of Antarctic ozone, Nature , , , Avallone, L. Lait, P. Newman, M. Schoeberl, D. Fahey, E. Woodbridge, and J. Anderson, The seasonal evolution of reactive chlorine in the northern hemisphere stratosphere, Science , , , Froidevaux, W.

Read, G. Manney, L. Elson, D. Flower, R. Jarnot, and R. Thompson, T. Swanson, J. Butler, B. Hall, S. Cummings, D. Fisher, and A. Raffo, Decrease in the growth rates of atmospheric chlorofluorocarbons 11 and 12, Nature , , , Weiss, B. Miller, J. Huang, F. Alyea, D. Cunnold, P.

Fraser, D. Hartley, and P.