Section: 6 | Properties of Refrigerants |

How to Cite this Reference

Marcia L. Huber and Mark O. McLinden

PROPERTIES OF REFRIGERANTS

This table gives physical properties, safe exposure limits, and climate change potential for compounds that have been used as working fluids in traditional refrigeration systems or are under consideration as replacements in newer systems. Some are also used as solvents, blowing agents, and fire suppressants. This table includes both traditional chlorofluorohydrocarbon (CFC) abd hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) refrigerants, which are now largely phased out because of their environment as well as new fluids that are less harmful to the environment.

Column definitions for the table are as follows. Note the critical temperature is in kelvin (K), while other temperatures (melting point and boiling point) are in °C.

Column heading	Definition
Name	Chemical name of refrigerant; listed alphabetically by name
ASHRAE Desig.	ASHRAE standard refrigerant designation (Ref. 1); see text for discussion
Mol. form.	Molecular formula for refrigerant
CAS Reg. No.	Chemical Abstracts Service Registry Number
t_mp	Normal melting point, in °C (“tp” indicates a triple point)
t_bp	Normal boiling point, in °C at 101.325 kPa or 760 mmHg (“sp” indicates a sublimation point)
T_c	Critical temperature, in K
p_c	Critical pressure, in MPa
TLV/TWA	Threshold limit value, expressed as the time-weighted average over an 8-hr workday and 40-hr workweek, for safe exposure to the vapor; in units of parts per million (ppm) by volume
STEL	Short-term exposure limit, which should not be exceeded for more than 15 min, in units of parts per million (ppm)
GWP	Global warming potential, 100-year time horizon, data value is relative to the GWP for CO₂ = 1
ODP	Ozone depletion potential, data value is relative to CFC-11 (trichlofluoromethane) = 1

The ASHRAE codes are often prefixed by symbols such as CFC- (for chlorofluorocarbon), HCFC- (for hydrochlorofluorocarbon), or simply R- (for refrigerant). The “R” number assigned to refrigerants is specified by ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 34. This system is most useful for the hydrocarbons and halocarbons with one to three carbons; for such molecules the chemical composition can be determined from the number and vice versa. The first digit on the far right is the number of fluorine atoms in the compound. The second digit from the right is one more than the number of hydrogen atoms. The third digit from the right is one less than the number of carbon atoms; for single-carbon compounds, this digit is omitted. The fourth digit from the right is equal to the number of unsaturated carbon–carbon bonds; for saturated compounds, this digit is omitted. The number of bromine and iodine atoms is indicated, if needed, by appending “Bn” or “In” to the digits specified by the above rules, where “n” is the number of bromine or iodine atoms. All atoms not specified by the above are assumed to be chlorine. Appended lowercase letter(s) designate different isomers. Appended (E) and (Z) indicate trans and cis forms, respectively. Additional rules are used to specify cyclic compounds, ethers, inorganic fluids (R700- and R7000-series), miscellaneous organic compounds (R600-series), and blends (R400- and R500-series).

Note that many of the fluids in this section have not been classified by ASHRAE Standard 34 and are not currently used as refrigerants, although their “R-numbers” can be deduced based on the rules laid out in the standard. Such fluids are indicated with a footnote.

The physical properties t_mp, t_bp, T_c, and p_c listed below are from Refs. 2-5, and additional details including uncertainties may be found therein. Details on TLV/TWA and STEL are given in Section 16. When available, values for GWP are for a 100-year time horizon relative to CO₂ and are taken from Ref. 6. Otherwise, the GWP and ODP are taken from Refs. 5-8.

References

ASHRAE (2019). ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 34-2019 Designation and Safety Classification of Refrigerants, American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Atlanta, GA, 2019.
Diky, V., Chirico, R. D., Frenkel, M., Bazyleva, A., Magee, J. W., Paulechka, E., Kazakov, A., Lemmon, E. W., Muzny, C. D., Smolyanitsky, A. Y., Townsend, S., and Kroenlein, K., NIST ThermoData Engine - Pure Compounds, Binary Mixtures and Reactions - SRD 103b, Version 10.4, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Standard Reference Data Program, Gaithersburg, MD, 2019, <https://doi.org/10.18434/T4Q30W>
AIChE, DIPPR Information and Data Evaluation Manager for the Design Institute for Physical Properties, DIADEM Pro v14.0.0, 2019.
Lemmon, E. W., Bell, I. H., Huber, M. L., and McLinden, M. O., NIST Standard Reference Database 23: Reference Fluid Thermodynamic and Transport Properties - REFPROP, Version 10.0, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Standard Reference Data Program, Gaithersburg, MD, 2018. <http://www.nist.gov/srd/nist23.cfm>
Tomassetti, S., Di Nicola, G., and Kondou, C., Int. J. Refrig. 133,172, 2021. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2021.10.008]
Myhre, G., Shindell, D., Bréon, F.-M., Collins, W., Fuglestvedt, J., Huang, J., Koch, D., Lamarque, J.-F., Lee, D., Mendoza, B., Nakajima, T., Robock, A., Stephens, G., Takemura, T., Zhang, H., Anthropogenic and Natural Radiative Forcing, In Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis, Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK (2013).
WMO (World Meteorological Organization), Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 2018, Global Ozone Research and Monitoring Project – Report No. 58, 588 pp., Geneva, Switzerland, 2018.
Tokuhashi, K., Uchimaru, T., Takizawa, K., and Kondo, S., J. Phys. Chem. A 122, 3120, 2018. [https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpca.7b11923]

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Mobile-friendly table

Properties of Refrigerants

Name	ASHRAE Desig.	CAS Reg. No.	t_mp/ºC	t_bp/ºC	T_c/K	p_c/MPa	STEL/ppm	GWP	ODP
Continued on next page...
Ammonia	717	7664-41-7	-77.66	-33.32	405.56	11.358	35	<1	0
Bis(difluoromethyl) ether^a	E134	1691-17-4	-123.15	5.7	420.25	4.15		5560	0
Bromochlorodifluoromethane	12B1	353-59-3	-159.5	-3.91	427.70	4.31		1750	3
Bromodifluoromethane^a	22B1	1511-62-2	-145.15	-15.63	411.98	5.18		376	0.74
Bromotrifluoromethane	13B1	75-63-8	-174.38	-57.83	340.06	3.96		6290	10
Butane	600	106-97-8	-138.26	-0.49	425.13	3.80	1000		0
Carbon dioxide	744	124-38-9	-56.56^tp	-78.46^sp	304.13	7.375	30000	1	0
1-Chloro-1,1-difluoroethane	142b	75-68-3	-130.43	-9.12	410.26	4.06		1980	0.023-0.057
1-Chloro-2,2-difluoroethane^a	142	338-65-8	-130.79	35	478			175	0.019
Chlorodifluoromethane	22	75-45-6	-157.42	-40.81	369.30	4.99		1760	0.055
Chloroethane^a	160	75-00-3	-138.35	12.30	460.35	5.24		<1
Chloroethene^a	1140	75-01-4	-153.84	-13.71	424.96	5.59		<<1
1-Chloro-1-fluoroethane^a	151a	1615-75-4		16.14	466	5.01		55	0.015
1-Chloro-2-fluoroethane^a	151	762-50-5		53.02	510.20	5.04		10	0.008
Chlorofluoromethane	31	593-70-4	-135.15	-12.75	455	5.76		65	0.02
Chloromethane	40	74-87-3	-97.64	-23.98	416.30	6.69	100	12	0.14-0.17
Chloropentafluoroethane	115	76-15-3	-99.4	-39.22	353.10	3.13		7670	0.6
1-Chloro-1,1,2,2-tetrafluoroethane^a	124a	354-25-6		35.65	396	3.62		1825	0.026
1-Chloro-1,2,2,2-tetrafluoroethane	124	2837-89-0	-199.15	-11.96	395.43	3.62		527	0.022

^aThis fluid has not been classified by ASHRAE Standard 34 and is not currently used as a refrigerant; its "R-numbers" can be deduced based on the rules laid out in the Standard.
^tpTriple point.
^spSublimation point.

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