Live data from Hacker News

Simple mix of soap and solvent could help destroy ‘forever chemicals’

science.org

21–30 of 239 posts

Re: Simple mix of soap and solvent could help destroy ‘forever chemicals’

#21

Slightly off topic, I’m keen to dispose of our Teflon frying pan. Does anyone have a good recommendation for an alternative, ideally one that doesn’t take too much “maintenance”? We also have a Teflon milk pan but that is never used at a high tempriture so I’m less concerned about that.

I love my carbon steel pan.

Re: Simple mix of soap and solvent could help destroy ‘forever chemicals’

#22

The paper: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abm8868 The "soap and solvent" is sodium hydroxide (lye) and DMSO at 120 degC. Those are... fairly... well behaved chemicals, but lye is stout stuff and DMSO attacks nitrile gloves. You could imagine a remediation process that uses this process but the combo ain't exactly Dawn dish soap. I'd almost prefer pyroprocessing over it.

DMSO is not well-behaved. It easily penetrates human skin, and carries solutes with it. Don't touch!

"DMSO can cause contaminants, toxins, and medicines to be absorbed through the skin, which may cause unexpected effects.

"Because DMSO easily penetrates the skin, substances dissolved in DMSO may be quickly absorbed. Glove selection is important when working with DMSO. Butyl rubber, fluoroelastomer, neoprene, or thick (15 mil / 0.4 mm) latex gloves are recommended. Nitrile gloves, which are very commonly used in chemical laboratories, may protect from brief contact but have been found to degrade rapidly with exposure to DMSO."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimethyl_sulfoxide

Re: Simple mix of soap and solvent could help destroy ‘forever chemicals’

#24
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could get a new pan with 'ceramic' coating. It's just like teflon in basically every way.

I got a couple different “ceramic” coated skillets and they were the stickiest things I’ve ever used. They went straight to the recycler.

They need to be _hot_ to work.

Re: Simple mix of soap and solvent could help destroy ‘forever chemicals’

#25
post #9

Slightly off topic, I’m keen to dispose of our Teflon frying pan. Does anyone have a good recommendation for an alternative, ideally one that doesn’t take too much “maintenance”? We also have a Teflon milk pan but that is never used at a high tempriture so I’m less concerned about that.

High temperatures do not bother Teflon, there's no reason to dispose of it because of that. According to the EPA Teflon frying pans do not leech any PFOA into food, that's not where people are exposed. I've noticed that for some reason a ton of people think they get exposure to PFOA from cookware, and that's simply not true. PFOA exposure mainly comes from waterproofing coatings, slippery coatings (like the bottom of…

Leaching isn't the worry with non-stick coatings, flaking is. Everyone's seen pans flake off teflon into food.

Re: Simple mix of soap and solvent could help destroy ‘forever chemicals’

#26
post #16
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's just like teflon in basically every way. Hopefully not in the bad ways? Is the "ceramic coating" proven to not be harmful?

What bad ways? Teflon is not harmful. Teflon is not the same as PFAS, and Teflon cookware does not leech any PFAS into food. See my other reply: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32515717 And to answer your question, ceramics sometimes have heavy metals to get bright colors (cadmium mostly). Make sure to buy from a reputable manufacturer.

My Teflon pans are all slightly scratched. When they scratch some material comes loose and is removed from the pan.

Where is that material?

Re: Simple mix of soap and solvent could help destroy ‘forever chemicals’

#27
post #15

Slightly off topic, I’m keen to dispose of our Teflon frying pan. Does anyone have a good recommendation for an alternative, ideally one that doesn’t take too much “maintenance”? We also have a Teflon milk pan but that is never used at a high tempriture so I’m less concerned about that.

I switched to stainless steel, it is more to maintain, but it's not horrible. I also use a ceramic pan on very low temperatures to cook really stick stuff like scrambled eggs.

The majority of things labeled ceramic are teflon on top.

Re: Simple mix of soap and solvent could help destroy ‘forever chemicals’

#28

Slightly off topic, I’m keen to dispose of our Teflon frying pan. Does anyone have a good recommendation for an alternative, ideally one that doesn’t take too much “maintenance”? We also have a Teflon milk pan but that is never used at a high tempriture so I’m less concerned about that.

You could get a new pan with 'ceramic' coating. It's just like teflon in basically every way.

Because it is Teflon on top of an anodized aluminum layer.

Re: Simple mix of soap and solvent could help destroy ‘forever chemicals’

#29
post #2

> What’s left behind, Trang says, is mostly easily captured fluorine ions, and a mixture of harmless, naturally occurring carbon and oxygen containing byproducts, her team reports today in Science. > Roughly 40% of PFAS compounds contain carboxylic acid groups, and thus could potentially be degraded by the new approach, Trang says. Though it has yet to be tested in the field, she adds that the most likely strategy wo…

Batteries contain PFAS? Now I gotta test everything.

PFAS seems to be used in keeping water out, so that makes sense. I suppose we might be able to find PFAS anywhere products are exposed to water with negative consequences.

Re: Simple mix of soap and solvent could help destroy ‘forever chemicals’

#30
post #2

> What’s left behind, Trang says, is mostly easily captured fluorine ions, and a mixture of harmless, naturally occurring carbon and oxygen containing byproducts, her team reports today in Science. > Roughly 40% of PFAS compounds contain carboxylic acid groups, and thus could potentially be degraded by the new approach, Trang says. Though it has yet to be tested in the field, she adds that the most likely strategy wo…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN