Atmospheric Chemistry and Environmental Impact of Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and Hydrofluoroethers (HFEs) Timothy J. Wallington 1 · Ole J. Nielsen 2 1 Ford Research Laboratory, MD 3083/SRL, Dearborn, Michigan 4812, USA E-mail: twalling@ford.com 2 University of Copenhagen, Department of Chemistry, Universitetsparken 5, 2100 København Ø, Denmark E-mail: ojn@kiku.dk We review the available data concerning the atmospheric chemistry and environmental im- pact of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and hydrofluoroethers (HFEs). HFCs and HFEs have no impact on stratospheric ozone. The direct global warming potentials of HFCs and HFEs are approximately an order of magnitude less than the CFCs they replace. At the concentrations expected from their atmospheric degradation, none of the oxidation products of HFCs or HFEs, are noxious or toxic. Keywords. Atmospheric chemistry, Hydrofluorocarbons, Hydrofluoroethers, Environmental impact, Global warming, Stratospheric ozone 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 2 Atmospheric Photochemistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 2.1 Troposphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 2.2 Stratosphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 3 Atmospheric Lifetimes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 4 Gas-Phase Chemistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 5 Aqueous-Phase Chemistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 6 Contribution of HFCs and HFEs to Global Climate Change . . . . 97 6.1 Radiative Forcing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 6.2 Global Warming Potential . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 7 Formation of Toxic/Noxious Degradation Products . . . . . . . . 100 8 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 9 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 CHAPTER 3 The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry Vol. 3, Part N Organofluorines (ed. by A. H. Neilson) © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2002