Recently, Li Yuli, a 2018 undergraduate in the School of Science of Tianjin University, published an article Low-temperature mineralization of perfluorocarboxylic acids as a co-first author in the top international academic journal Science.

This study is devoted to addressing the PFAS contamination problem under mild reaction conditions. By studying the reaction mechanism, Li Yuli proposed a reaction mechanism that could be consistent with the experiment and tested it by calculation. This study realized that perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acid (PFCAs) can be mineralized by a sodium hydroxide-mediated defluorination pathway, and that PFCAs will spontaneously decompose into benign inorganic fluoride ions and simple pollution-free organic molecules, which can provide the most direct and effective theoretical and practical guidance for the treatment of PFCs pollution and make a great contribution to the development of environmental chemistry.

It is reported that this study was conducted under the guidance of Prof. K. N. Houk at UCLA.