Fluorinert

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Fluorinert is the trademarked brand name for the line of electronics coolant liquids sold commercially by 3M. It is an electrically insulating, inert perfluorocarbon fluid which is used in various cooling applications but is mainly for cooling electronics. Different molecular formulations are available with a variety of boiling points, allowing it to be used in "single phase" applications where it remains a fluid, or for "two-phase" applications where the liquid boils to remove additional heat via evaporative cooling. An example of one of the formulations 3M uses would be for instance, FC-72, or perfluorohexane (C₆F₁₄) which is used for low temperature heat transfer applications due to its boiling point of 56 °C. Another example is FC-75, perfluoro(2-butyl-tetrahydrofurane).

Fluorinert is used in situations where air will not carry away enough heat, or where airflow is so restricted that some sort of forced pumping is required anyway. One example of Fluorinert use was the Cray-2 supercomputer, which had a large backlit "waterfall" to cool the fluid after passing through the CPU.

[edit] Environmental concerns

Though Fluorinert poses no ozone depletion potential, since it contains no chlorine atoms, it does have a high global warming potential due to its long atmospheric lifetime and should be carefully handled to minimize atmospheric emissions.

[edit] Characteristics

As a perfluorocarbon, Fluorinert has a high gas solubility. Experiments have been conducted on lab animals to see animal survivability when submerged in highly oxygenated Fluorinert. Lab rats have survived for extended periods in such an environment, but invariably died due to lung trauma after removal. The science fiction film The Abyss (1989) featured highly oxygenated Fluorinert as the means by which a deep sea diver was provided oxygen.