Perfluoro(2-methyl-3-pentanone) is a

fluorinated In chemistry, halogenation is a chemical reaction which introduces one or more halogens into a chemical compound. Halide-containing compounds are pervasive, making this type of transformation important, e.g. in the production of polymers, drugs. ...

ketone In organic chemistry, a ketone is an organic compound with the structure , where R and R' can be a variety of carbon-containing substituents. Ketones contain a carbonyl group (a carbon-oxygen double bond C=O). The simplest ketone is acetone ( ...

with the structural formula CF₃CF₂C(=O)CF(CF₃)₂, a fully-fluorinated analog of ethyl isopropyl ketone. It is used as an electronics coolant liquid and fire protection fluid sold commercially by 3M under brand names such as Novec 1230, Novec 649, and FK-5-1-12. It is also known as "waterless water" or "dry water".

Applications

3M produces perfluoro(2-methyl-3-pentanone) under different brand names of Novec 1230 and Novec 649. These two products have different purity grades (>99% and >99.9%, respectively) intended for different industrial applications.

Novec 1230 and FK-5-1-12

Novec 1230 is used as

gaseous fire suppression Gaseous fire suppression, also called clean agent fire suppression, is the use of inert gases and chemical agents to extinguish a fire. These agents are governed by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Standard for Clean Agent Fire Ex ...

agent in scenarios where water-based fire suppression (for example, from a

fire sprinkler A fire sprinkler or sprinkler head is the component of a fire sprinkler system that discharges water when the effects of a fire have been detected, such as when a predetermined temperature has been exceeded. Fire sprinklers are extensively used ...

) would be impractical or where it could damage expensive equipment or property, such as

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

server room A server room is a room, usually air-conditioned, devoted to the continuous operation of computer servers. An entire building or station devoted to this purpose is a data center. The computers in server rooms are usually headless systems that c ...

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

clean room A cleanroom or clean room is an engineered space that maintains a very low concentration of airborne particulates. It is well-isolated, well-controlled from contamination, and actively cleansed. Such rooms are commonly needed for scientifi ...

s and

hospital A hospital is a healthcare institution providing patient treatment with specialized Medical Science, health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically ...

s. It functions by rapidly removing heat to extinguish a fire before it starts; also, its density enables it to displace air and thereby deprive the fire of oxygen. Novec 1230 can be used in both total/partial/localized flooding systems, and directional spray-type applications; it is also used in portable extinguishers for specialized applications. The Patent for Novec 1230 as fire extinguishant ended on July 19, 2020. Since the expiry of the patent, multiple companies have brought equivalent products to market under the chemical name FK-5-1-12. Recently, it has found active use in microencapsulated form in the manufacture of fire-extinguishing composite materials.

Samsung SDI Samsung SDI Co., Ltd. () is a battery and electronic materials manufacturer headquartered in Yongin, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. Samsung SDI operates its business with Energy Solutions and Electronic Materials segment. The Energy Solution segment m ...

is using this product to extinguish fires in the early stages of modular high-capacity storage systems (ESS) based on

lithium-ion batteries A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery that uses the reversible intercalation of Li+ ions into electronically conducting solids to store energy. Li-ion batteries are characterized by higher specific energy, energy ...

for

solar panels A solar panel is a device that converts sunlight into electricity by using photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV cells are made of materials that produce excited electrons when exposed to light. These electrons flow through a circuit and produce direct ...

and

electric vehicles An electric vehicle (EV) is a motor vehicle whose propulsion is powered fully or mostly by electricity. EVs encompass a wide range of transportation modes, including road vehicle, road and rail vehicles, electric boats and Submersible, submer ...

. In August 2019, Samsung SDI officially announced its investment of $ 169 million into fire-extinguishing composite materials based on microencapsulated Novec 1230. The firm later reported that UL9540A testing for this product was passed.

Novec 649

Novec 649 is a low-temperature heat-transfer fluid. It has been used as a full-immersion fluid in a proof of concept data center cooling system by

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

and

SGI SGI may refer to: Companies *Saskatchewan Government Insurance *Scientific Games International, a gambling company *Silicon Graphics, Inc., a former manufacturer of high-performance computing products *Silicon Graphics International, formerly Rac ...

. Due to its relatively low boiling point, it is used as a heat transfer fluid in two-phase immersion cooling systems. Within these systems

evaporative cooling An evaporative cooler (also known as evaporative air conditioner, swamp cooler, swamp box, desert cooler and wet air cooler) is a device that cools air through the evaporation of water. Evaporative cooling differs from other air conditioning sy ...

is utilized to remove excess heat generated from immersed technology. The heat is then removed from the vaporous Novec 649 using a condensing loop typically running cold water. Novec 649 is also being considered to be used for cooling silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) sensors to in single-phase configuration as part of Large Hadron Collider’s high luminosity upgrade. Traditional

perfluorocarbon Fluorocarbons are chemical compounds with carbon-fluorine bonds. Compounds that contain many C-F bonds often have distinctive properties, e.g., enhanced stability, volatility, and hydrophobicity. Several fluorocarbons and their derivatives are ...

(PFC) based compounds used for cooling, such as

Fluorinert Fluorinert is the trademarked brand name for the line of electronics coolant liquids sold commercially by 3M. As perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), all Fluorinert variants have an extremely high global warming potential (GWP), so should be used with ...

, display high

global warming potential Global warming potential (GWP) is a measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere over a specific time period, relative to carbon dioxide (). It is expressed as a multiple of warming caused by the same mass of carbon dioxide ( ...

s (GWPs), typically 5,000 to 10,000 times that of CO₂. Novec 649 was chosen as a good drop-in replacement due to it having similar thermo-physical properties to Fluorinert FC-72 (

perfluorohexane Perfluorohexane (), or tetradecafluorohexane, is a fluorocarbon. It is a derivative of hexane in which all the hydrogen atoms are replaced by fluorine atoms. It is used in one formulation of the electronic cooling liquid/insulator Fluorinert for l ...

, C6F14) while exhibiting a very low global warming potential of 1.

Environmental safety

Novec 649/1230 does not deplete

ozone Ozone () (or trioxygen) is an Inorganic compound, inorganic molecule with the chemical formula . It is a pale blue gas with a distinctively pungent smell. It is an allotrope of oxygen that is much less stable than the diatomic allotrope , break ...

( ODP 0) and has a

of 1 (over 100 years), equivalent to that of

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalent bond, covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in a gas state at room temperature and at norma ...

. The Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS) classifies this chemical as H412 - Harmful to aquatic life with long lasting effects.

Photolysis Photodissociation, photolysis, photodecomposition, or photofragmentation is a chemical reaction in which molecules of a chemical compound are broken down by absorption of light or photons. It is defined as the interaction of one or more photons wi ...

in sunlight,

hydrolysis Hydrolysis (; ) is any chemical reaction in which a molecule of water breaks one or more chemical bonds. The term is used broadly for substitution reaction, substitution, elimination reaction, elimination, and solvation reactions in which water ...

and

hydration Hydration may refer to: * Hydrate, a substance that contains water * Hydration enthalpy, energy released through hydrating a substance * Hydration reaction, a chemical addition reaction where a hydroxyl group and proton are added to a compound * H ...

may be a significant sink of Novec 649/1230 in the environment. It has very short estimated atmospheric lifetime of around 4 to 15 days. Novec 649/1230 is classified as a

PFAS Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (also PFAS, PFASs, and informally referred to as "forever chemicals") are a group of synthetic organofluorine chemical compounds that have multiple fluorine atoms attached to an alkyl chain; there are 7 millio ...

substance. In December 2022, 3M announced that it would cease production of all PFAS products by 2025, including Novec 649/1230. It degrades to

Trifluoroacetic acid Trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) is a synthetic organofluorine compound with the chemical formula CF3CO2H. It belongs to the subclass of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) known as ultrashort-chain perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs). TFA is not ...

(TFA) via photolytic degradation in sunlight.

References

External links

3M Novec 1230 Website3M Novec 649 product pageTechnical Brief, Environmental properties of Novec 1230 FluidData Sheets of Novec 649 FluidMSDS for Novec 1230Patent for Novec 1230United States Environmental Protection Agency Substitutes in Total Flooding Agents3M Novec 649 as a replacement of C6F14 in liquid cooling systems
{{3M, state=expanded Coolants Fire suppression agents Ketones Liquid dielectrics Perfluorinated compounds 3M brands Greenhouse gases