AGC (AGC Inc., Headquarters: Tokyo; President: Yoshinori Hirai), a world-leading manufacturer of glass, chemicals, and other high-tech materials, has developed an innovative process to manufacture fluoropolymers without the use of surfactants*1 (hereinafter “the technology”). Using the technology, AGC aims to achieve a continuous and stable supply of fluoropolymers, which is indispensable for the realisation of a carbon-neutral and digital society.
Some fluoropolymers have been conventionally manufactured through a method called emulsion polymerisation using fluorinated surfactants as polymerisation aids*2. In the past few years, there has been a growing demand for the development of manufacturing technologies not using fluorinated surfactants. However, some other currently developed technologies using non-fluorinated surfactants have some issues, such as the generation of fluorinated byproducts*3 and inferior performance of products compared to those manufactured through conventional technologies. The technology AGC has developed makes it possible to manufacture fluoropolymers having the same type of high performance properties as those produced by conventional methods with an extremely low generation of fluorinated byproducts*4, without using any surfactants.
Fluoropolymers are used in multiple applications in various fields, including semiconductors, automobiles, electronics, and energy, and are indispensable materials for the sustainable development of society. Fluoropolymers produced using the technology demonstrate the same kind of excellent properties as those of conventional products, such as heat resistance, cold resistance, chemical resistance, durability, and other properties. The technology is currently in development with the aim of starting industrial scale production by 2030.
As part of its key strategy in the medium-term management plan AGC plus-2026, AGC Group aims to strengthen its sustainability management and create three social values: Blue Planet (Realization of a sustainable global environment), Innovation (Creation of an innovative future society), and Well-being (Contribution to a safe and secure living). Through the development and application of the technology, the AGC Group will continue to provide safe, reliable, and highly essential products and contribute to the realisation of a sustainable society.
*1 Surfactants are chemical substances used to mix immiscible substances to form an emulsion, a homogeneous mixture.
*2 Polymerisation aid is the term used to describe a surfactant or emulsifier, fluorinated or non-fluorinated.
*3 Byproducts are incidental or secondary substances produced as a result of a manufacturing process.
*4 The amount of individual non-polymeric fluorinated byproducts contained in a product can be controlled to less than 25 ppb.
