Contribution to Global Warming of Plasma Polymerization and Treatment Processes Fed with Fluorinated Compounds

Many fluorine containing compounds utilized in plasma processing, namely plasma polymerization and treatment of materials, have marked greenhouse characteristics as they are able to absorb IR-radiation and have long lifetimes in the atmosphere. The unreacted portion of the feeds and some by-products released in the atmosphere during plasma processing contribute to the global warming of the Earth. This is a problem whose general aspects are discussed in this paper, together with the evaluation of the effects on global warming of the effluents of plasmas fed with some fluorine containing compounds.