WHAT IS SULFUR HEXAFLUORIDE USED FOR?

What is sulfur hexafluoride used for? The electrical industry accounts for 80% of SF6 gas usage, but some of its other applications might surprise you. Click below to read more.

SF6 gas is not well known in most households, but the gas impacts your life more than you know. What is SF6 gas and what is it used for? Sulfur hexafluoride is a manmade gas that is non-toxic, inert, and denser than air. The unique properties of SF6 gas make it an ideal gas for a variety of applications, from the substations that power your home to components in our beloved cell phones.  In fact, you probably use devices that contain or use SF6 in some way much more than you think!



SF6 in the Electrical Industry

The most common use of SF6 gas is as an insulating and arc quenching gas in medium and high voltage circuit breakers and electrical switchgear. The chemical properties of SF6 gas- it’s inert, non-toxic, and thermally stable- make it ideal for this application. SF6 gas emissions are a valid concern in the electrical industry; however, properly trained personnel and best-practices employed during gas handling procedures can prevent SF6 emissions. If you’d like to learn more about SF6 use in the electrical industry, check out this blog post. The T&D Industry is not the only user of SF6 gas, and today we will focus on less common uses of Sulfur hexafluoride.


Sulfur Hexafluoride (SF6) Use in Ophthalmology - Saving Your Eyesight

If you’ve ever had eye surgery to repair cataracts, genetic disorders, or trauma, you may have had SF6 injected into your eye. A vitrectomy is an eye surgery performed to treat problems with the retina and vitreous, the gel like material in the middle of your eye. During this surgery, an ophthalmologist will remove the vitreous to gain access to the retina. 

The vitreous helps the retina stay in place, so the surgeon must replace this substance with something else. This is where SF6 gas comes in. The ophthalmologist may inject sulfur hexafluoride to fill the void left by the removed vitreous gel. The SF6 gas helps keep the retina stable to allow the eye to properly heal. SF6 gas has a much higher density than air, so it takes the body 3-4 weeks to absorb it compared to 1-3 weeks for air. Therefore, it is vital to avoid flying for a minimum of 3-4 weeks after an eye surgery that uses SF6 gas. At the high altitudes reached in an airplane, the gas expands and can seriously damage the surrounding eye tissue.


SF6 Gas in The Shoe Industry

When Nike originally manufactured the popular Air shoes, Freon was chosen as the gas to keep the air pockets inflated. In 1989, after Freon was no longer produced, Nike switched to using SF6 gas in its Air shoes. SF6 is non-flammable and the molecules are quite large, making it a good choice at the time for the application because the gas stayed in the shoe for a long time. 


Nike reached the peak of its SF6 usage in 1997 when it learned of the effects of SF6 emissions on the atmosphere. SF6 is the most potent greenhouse gas known to man and it remains in the atmosphere for 3,200 years.  There were no regulations on SF6 gas at the time, but Nike set a goal to discontinue the use of SF6 in its shoes by 2000. It took Nike years of R&D to find a suitable alternative and the company had to extend their deadline to discontinue SF6 use to 2006. Nike now uses nitrogen in their Nike Air shoes. 


Sulfur Hexafluoride as an Etching Gas

SF6 is used as an etching gas in the manufacture of semiconductor devices, photovoltaic panels, flat panels, and Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems. The unique properties of Sulfur hexafluoride, in this case the high density and large molecule size, make it one of the preferred etching gases in this industry. 


Many consumer products that you may use in everyday life contain semiconductors. These items include cell phones, cameras, televisions, washing machines, refrigerators, and LED bulbs.  Due to concerns about global warming impacts, alternative etching gases are being researched for the semiconductor industry.

More about Specialty Gases, please contact us

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