4. Organic fluids

As we have already noted, many organic fluids can be used to advantage at low temperatures. These include organic fluids that can be used as refrigerants (cf. commercial names and suppliers in the list of manufacturers in the Need to know section):

• mineral oils or hydrocarbons of petroleum origin, such as Gilotherm D12 (Solutia);

• Aromatic synthetic oils such as Dowtherm J (Dow Chemical) or silicone oils such as Syltherm XLT (Dow Chemical) or Basylon KT3 (Bayer);

• halogenated HFE (hydrofluoroether) fluids such as HFE 7100.

At low temperatures, these synthetic oils and organic fluids offer undeniable qualities of thermal stability, chemical inertness, non-toxicity and non-corrosivity.

More specific...