AGC Develops New Fluoropolymer Manufacturing Process

AGC, a leading global manufacturer of glass, chemicals and other high-tech materials, has developed an innovative process for producing fluoropolymers without the use of surfactants. AGC aims to use this technology to achieve a continuous and stable supply of fluoropolymers, which is essential for achieving a carbon-neutral and digital society.

In the past, some fluoropolymers were produced by emulsion polymerization using fluorinated surfactants as polymerization aids. In recent years, there has been an increasing demand for the development of manufacturing technologies that do not use fluorinated surfactants.

However, some other technologies currently being developed that use non-fluorinated surfactants also have some problems, such as the generation of fluorinated byproducts, and the performance of the products is inferior to that of conventional technologies.

The technology developed by AGC can produce fluoropolymers with the same high-performance characteristics as those produced by conventional methods, with extremely low production of fluorinated byproducts and without the use of any surfactants.

Fluoropolymers are widely used in various fields such as semiconductors, automobiles, electronics, and energy, and are indispensable materials for the sustainable development of society.

The fluoropolymers produced using this technology have the same excellent properties as conventional products, such as heat resistance, cold resistance, chemical resistance, durability, etc. The technology is currently under development with the goal of starting industrial-scale production by 2030.