Freon gas whose molecular formula is (CCl2F2), is a gas that is still widely used in several products related to our daily lives. As the structure itself reveals, this chlorinated and fluorinated gas is derived from methane and is highly flammable.
To know where freon is used, just imagine a summer day: a blazing sun on a beach, that terrible thirst and you urgently want to drink some water, cold of course. Know that the responsible for your refrigerator keeping food fresh and preserved is precisely the freon gas.
Freon 12 gas is responsible for the production of cold in the freezers, it circulates throughout the circuit (compressor, expansion valve, evaporator, condenser). In addition to being used as a refrigerant, freon gas is used as a propellant for aerosols (propellant sprays). This gas at low altitudes (at earth level) is not very toxic, but when it is found dispersed in the upper atmosphere, it becomes one of those responsible for the destruction of the ozone layer.
By Líria Alves
Graduated in Chemistry
