3M produces perfluoro(2-methyl-3-pentanone) under different brand names of
Novec 1230 and
Novec 649. These two products have different purity grades (>99% and >99.9%, respectively) intended for different industrial applications.
Novec 1230 and FK-5-1-12 Novec 1230 is used as
gaseous fire suppression agent in scenarios where water-based fire suppression (for example, from a
fire sprinkler) would be impractical or where it could damage expensive equipment or property, such as
museums,
server rooms,
banks,
clean rooms and
hospitals. It functions by rapidly removing heat to extinguish a fire before it starts; also, its density enables it to displace air and thereby deprive the fire of oxygen. Novec 1230 can be used in both total/partial/localized flooding systems, and directional spray-type applications; it is also used in portable extinguishers for specialized applications. The Patent for Novec 1230 as fire extinguishant ended on July 19, 2020. Since the expiry of the patent, multiple companies have brought equivalent products to market under the chemical name FK-5-1-12. Recently, it has found active use in
microencapsulated form in the manufacture of fire-extinguishing composite materials.
Samsung SDI is using this product to extinguish fires in the early stages of modular high-capacity storage systems (ESS) based on
lithium-ion batteries for
solar panels and
electric vehicles. In August 2019, Samsung SDI officially announced its investment of $169 million into fire-extinguishing composite materials based on microencapsulated Novec 1230. The firm later reported that UL9540A testing for this product was passed.
Novec 649 Novec 649 is a low-temperature heat-transfer fluid. It has been used as a
full-immersion fluid in a proof of concept data center cooling system by
Intel and
SGI. Due to its relatively low boiling point, it is used as a heat transfer fluid in two-phase immersion cooling systems. Within these systems
evaporative cooling is utilized to remove excess heat generated from immersed technology. The heat is then removed from the vaporous Novec 649 using a condensing loop typically running cold water. Novec 649 is also being considered to be used for cooling silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) sensors to in single-phase configuration as part of
Large Hadron Collider’s high luminosity upgrade. Traditional
perfluorocarbon (PFC) based compounds used for cooling, such as
Fluorinert, display high
global warming potentials (GWPs), typically 5,000 to 10,000 times that of CO2. ==Environmental safety==