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A 2025 study in Nature reports a way to break down several types of PFAS by ball milling them with potassium phosphate salts, then recover some of their fluorine as inorganic chemicals. The reported products include potassium fluoride (KF) and potassium fluorophosphate (K2PO3F). This is laboratory research, not a commercially deployed or proven industrial-scale treatment.
What the PFAS ball-milling method does
Ball milling uses moving balls inside a jar to grind and mix materials. In Yang and coauthors’ 2025 method, the key treatment is not milling alone: PFAS are milled together with potassium phosphate salts. The authors report that this mechanochemical process cleaves carbon–fluorine bonds and captures fluorine in inorganic products.
The study covers both fluoropolymers and smaller PFAS molecules, including polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS). The resulting fluoride compounds are chemical feedstocks, not retail consumer products.
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What the researchers tested and recovered
PTFE milled with potassium phosphate
For one PTFE experiment, Yang and coauthors milled PTFE with potassium phosphate (K3PO4) at 35 Hz for 3 hours in a steel jar sealed with a rubber ring. They dissolved the water-soluble material and analyzed it using fluorine-19 nuclear magnetic resonance (19F NMR). The reported signals indicated fluoride and PO3F2−, and the authors describe fluorine recovery in this example as near-quantitative. That result applies to the specified laboratory experiment; it is not a general recovery guarantee for other materials or operating conditions.
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The phosphate salt affects the product
The authors report that the choice of phosphate changes the product distribution. In the described PTFE experiment, K3PO4 produced predominantly fluoride along with some fluorophosphate, while potassium pyrophosphate (K4P2O7) produced predominantly fluorophosphate. The paper also reports converting recovered K2PO3F into KF or tetraalkylammonium fluorides. This demonstrated chemistry is the basis for describing the recovered fluorine compounds as potentially useful in fluorination chemistry; it does not establish a commercial PFAS-waste-to-feedstock supply chain.
What “industrial use” means—and what it does not
Yang and coauthors describe their protocol in the abstract as converting multiple PFAS classes, including PTFE and PVDF, into “high-value fluorochemicals.” In context, the significance is that fluorine from PFAS was recovered in chemical forms the authors show can be used in fluorination chemistry. The study does not establish that the process is commercially available, economically viable, or operating at industrial scale.
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Whether the approach can translate beyond the laboratory depends on factors such as the PFAS form and surrounding material, the phosphate reagent, milling equipment and operating conditions, how completely fluorine is removed, and whether the products can be separated and recovered at scale. The reported experiments alone do not resolve those questions.
How this differs from other PFAS milling studies
“Ball milling PFAS” describes more than one research approach. The materials, co-milling ingredients, equipment, and intended outcome matter when comparing results.
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| Study | Material or matrix | Approach and reported scale | What it establishes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yang and coauthors, Nature (2025) | Several PFAS classes, including PTFE, PVDF, PFOA, and PFOS | Ball milling with potassium phosphate salts; a PTFE example used a laboratory steel jar at 35 Hz for 3 hours | Laboratory PFAS breakdown and recovery of inorganic fluorine products, including KF and K2PO3F |
| Science of the Total Environment (2024) | PFAS-contaminated soil | Separate soil-remediation study; reported use of a 267 L horizontal ball mill and included potassium hydroxide co-milling in described tests | Operational metrics for that soil-treatment approach; it does not establish scale-up of the phosphate-enabled fluoride-reuse method |
| Environmental Science & Technology Letters (2025) | PFAS adsorbed on granular activated carbon | Additive-free stainless-steel ball milling | A distinct treatment approach, not the phosphate-enabled method used to recover fluorine products |
The 267 L capacity belongs to the separate 2024 soil study, not to Yang and coauthors’ phosphate-enabled process. Treating the two as evidence of scale-up for the same method would conflate different experiments and treatment pathways.
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What to look for when evaluating a PFAS milling claim
- PFAS and matrix: Is the material a pure polymer, a smaller PFAS chemical, contaminated soil, or PFAS adsorbed on a sorbent?
- Co-milling reagent: Is the process phosphate-enabled, uses another reagent, or is described as additive-free?
- Apparatus and operating scale: What mill, jar, operating conditions, and material quantities were actually reported?
- Defluorination evidence: How was fluorine removal measured, and does the claim distinguish destruction of the PFAS structure from recovery of fluorine?
- Products and recovery: Which inorganic fluorine compounds were identified, and were they separated or shown to be usable?
- Scale-up evidence: Does the cited work test the same chemistry at a larger scale, or is a large mill being discussed in a separate treatment study?
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