1. Organic Chemistry - PFA's "forever chemicals" in our daily lives 

Per- and Polyfluoroalkyls (PFAs), also known as forever chemicals, contain organic carbon-fluorine bonds, which are among the strongest single bonds in organic chemistry. Students in the engineering program at the University of Missouri discovered a simple fix to these indestructible bonds. The article goes over the risks of PFAs and the health risks they pose for humans. The first step in their journey was to identify what they were investigating. In their case, it was about which solutions could break down PFAs despite their resistance to many common ones. From there, Feng “Frank” Xiao, a professor at the university, claimed there was a simple fix that he had been studying for over 10 years: heating the PFAs with granulated active carbon (GAC) at 572°F. When doing so, the PFAs melted down into fluorine, which had become inorganic and lacked carbon. These findings are extremely important because without them, we would not have effective ways to eliminate PFAs from our daily lives. We can connect these to key concepts in our Organic Chemistry unit. For example, we learned organic compounds are those which contain contain carbon. Since PFAs are held together by a backbone of carbon bonds, they are considered organic. 

Mizzou researchers discover simple solution to break down

     forever chemicals (2025, January 31) Mizzou Engineering

     https://engineering.missouri.edu/2025/mizzou-researchers-

    discover-simple-solution-to-break-down-forever-chemicals/