Chloroflourocarbons Chloroflourocarbons were discovered in the 1920's by Thomas Midgley, an organic chemist at General Motors Corporation. He was looking for inert, non- toxic, non-flammable compounds with low boiling points that could be used as refrigerants. He found what he was looking for in the form of two compounds: dichlorodifluoromethane (CFC-12) and trichloromonoflouromethane (CFC-11). In both compounds, different amounts of chlorine and fluorine are combined with methane, which is a combination of carbon and hydrogen. These two CFCs were eventually manufactured by E.I. du Pont de Nemours and company, and, under the trade name “freon,” constituted 15% of the market for refrig