A Belgian scientist, Frederic Swarts, pioneered the synthesis of CFC’s in the the late 1890’s. His discovery came about after replacing chloride in carbon tetrachloride with fluridide to synthesize CFC-11 and CFC-12. In the late 1920’s, Thomas Midgley, Jr. improved the process of synthesis and led the effort to use CFC as refrigerant to replace ammonia, chloromethane and sulfur dioxide, which were commonly used at the time. During the late nineteenth century until the end of World War 2, the CFC, Carbon tetrachloride (CCL) was first used in fire extinguishers and “fire grenades”. Their use as a fire suppressant grew during World War II. Various toxic chloroalkanes were in standard use in military aircraft as a fire suppressant, and slowly became more common in civil aviation as well. In the 1960s, fluoroalkanes and bromofluoroalkanes became available and were quickly recognized as being highly effective fire-fighting materials. By the late 1960s they were standard in many applications where water and dry-powder extinguishers posed a threat of damage to the protected property, including computer rooms, telecommunications switches, laboratories, museums and art collections. Beginning with warships, in the 1970s, bromofluoroalkanes also progressively came to be associated with rapid knockdown of severe fires in confined spaces with minimal risk to personnel. By the early 1980s, bromofluoroalkanes were in common use on aircraft, ships, and large vehicles as well as in computer facilities and galleries. However, concern was beginning to be expressed about the impact of chloroalkanes and bromoalkanes on the ozone layer. These concerns however, were overlooked due to CFC’s being too important for human safety for restriction.
Refrigerators from the late 1800’s to 1929 used toxic gases such as ammonia, methyl chloride, and sulfur dioxides, as refrigerants. Several accidents occured during this time because of methyl chloride leaking from refrigerators. The CFC freon was soon introduced as a refrigerant to substitute the prior toxic refrigerants. Because Freon is non-toxic, it eliminated the danger posed by refrigerator leaks. In just a few years, compressor refrigerators using Freon became the standard for almost all-home kitchens