Forever chemicals are called that for a reason: they don't break down. PFAS—polyfluoroalkyl substances—persist in water, soil, and human bodies because their extreme chemical stability, which makes them so useful in non-stick cookware and waterproof fabrics, also makes them nearly impossible to destroy. Now researchers have found a way to use something as simple as sunlight to dismantle them.
An international team led by the University of Bath created a carbon-based photocatalyst that targets PFAS by combining carbon nitride with a rigid microporous polymer called PIM-1. When exposed to light, the system breaks PFAS molecules into carbon dioxide and fluoride—a compound far less persistent and commonly found in toothpaste. The breakthrough matters because PFAS accumulate in the food chain and human bodies over time. While the full health picture remains unclear, some studies have linked certain PFAS to increased cancer risk and other concerns.
What makes this approach practical is that it works at neutral pH—the typical acidity level of natural water systems. This means the technology could potentially be deployed in environmental remediation without requiring harsh chemical conditions or high temperatures. No industrial furnaces, no caustic chemicals. Just sunlight doing the work.
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Start Your News DetoxDr Fernanda C. O. L. Martins, the paper's first author, worked on the project during a placement at Bath as part of her PhD at the University of São Paulo. "PFAS are used in many different products, from waterproof clothing to lipstick, but they accumulate in the body and in the environment over time, with toxic effects," she explained. "Our project has combined an easy-to-make carbon-based catalyst with PIM-1 to make PFAS breakdown more efficient, especially at neutral pH."
The team sees a second application beyond cleanup. Because fluoride is released during the degradation process, the same chemistry could become a sensor to detect PFAS presence—a low-cost monitoring tool that could work outside specialist labs. Professor Frank Marken, who led the project, notes that detecting PFAS currently requires expensive equipment in controlled settings. "We hope that our technology could in the future be used in a simple portable sensor that can be used outside the lab, for example to detect where there are higher levels of PFAS in the environment."
The catalyst remains at prototype stage, and researchers are now seeking industrial partners to scale up and optimize the system for real-world deployment. If the technology succeeds at scale, communities facing PFAS contamination would gain both a remediation tool and a way to monitor the problem—a combination that could shift how we approach one of modern chemistry's most stubborn legacies.
