【Frontiers in HaiChuan Chemical Technology】Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics discovers an effective alternative to the greenhouse gas sulfur hexafluoride

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Research uncovers an effective alternative to the greenhouse gas sulfur hexafluoride 2025-04-15 Source: China Science Daily. A team led by researchers Dong Wenrui and Yang Xueming from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with Professor Long Bo from Guizhou Minzu University and Professor Donald G. Truhlar from the University of Minnesota, has made new progress in the study of the kinetics of bimolecular reactions involving Kriech intermediate. They found that perfluoroisobutyronitrile is primarily consumed in the atmosphere through reactions with Kriech intermediate pathways, providing a scientific basis for evaluating perfluoroisobutyronitrile as a substitute gas for sulfur hexafluoride. Recently, the relevant findings were published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Sulfur hexafluoride is widely used in electrical equipment due to its excellent insulating properties, but it is also one of the most potent greenhouse gases. Finding alternatives that possess good insulating properties and are environmentally friendly is key to slowing climate change. Perfluoroisobutynonitrile is a non-toxic compound with excellent insulating properties and a low global warming potential, making it one of the gases most likely to replace sulfur hexafluoride as a dielectric insulating gas. In this work, researchers conducted a systematic study of the reaction between the Krieger intermediate and perfluoroisobutyronitrile. By measuring how the reaction rate constant changes with temperature, and by combining this with the latest electronic structure calculations as well as two-level kinetics theory, they found that if the reaction involving the Krieger intermediate is adopted as a new degradation pathway and incorporated into global atmospheric models, the atmospheric lifetime of perfluoroisobutyronitrile would decrease significantly from the previously estimated 56 years to between 2 and 34.5 years. The theoretical simulations are in good agreement with the experimental measurements, indicating that the use of the latest methods in electronic structure calculation and reaction kinetics theory enables accurate prediction of the reaction rate constants of highly reactive substances, providing a reliable theoretical framework for understanding complex reaction systems. This work further confirmed the low-carbon properties of perfluoroisobutyronitrile, proving it to be an effective substitute for the greenhouse gas sulfur hexafluoride.