FREON

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Freon mean? 

• FREON (noun)
  The noun FREON has 1 sense:

1. any one or more chlorofluorocarbons (or related compounds) that are used as an aerosol propellant, organic solvent, or refrigerant

  Familiarity information: FREON used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FREON (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any one or more chlorofluorocarbons (or related compounds) that are used as an aerosol propellant, organic solvent, or refrigerant

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("Freon" is a kind of...):

CFC; chlorofluorocarbon (a fluorocarbon with chlorine; formerly used as a refrigerant and as a propellant in aerosol cans)

Domain usage:

trademark (a formally registered symbol identifying the manufacturer or distributor of a product)

 Context examples 

Finding the organohalogen Freon-40 near these young, Sun-like stars was surprising.

(ALMA and Rosetta Detect Freon-40 in Space, ESO)

Formerly used as an inhaled anesthetic during surgery, the primary use of chloroform today is in industry, where it is used as a solvent and in the production of the refrigerant freon.

(Chloroform, NCI Thesaurus)

The astronomers also compared the relative amounts of Freon-40 that contain different isotopes of chlorine in the infant star system and the comet — and found similar abundances.

(ALMA and Rosetta Detect Freon-40 in Space, ESO)

Using data captured by ALMA in Chile and from the ROSINA instrument on ESA’s Rosetta mission, a team of astronomers has found faint traces of the chemical compound Freon-40 (CH3Cl), also known as methyl chloride and chloromethane, around both the infant star system IRAS 16293-2422, about 400 light-years away, and the famous comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P/C-G) in our own Solar System.

(ALMA and Rosetta Detect Freon-40 in Space, ESO)

This new discovery of one of these compounds, Freon-40, in places that must predate the origin of life, can be seen as a disappointment, as earlier research had suggested that these molecules could indicate the presence of life.

(ALMA and Rosetta Detect Freon-40 in Space, ESO)