The extraction of ammonium carboxylate perfluoropolyether surfactants from poly(vinylidenefluoride) (PVDF) and poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE) was per-formed with supercritical carbon dioxide. When proper conditions ill terms of temperature, pressure and flow rate were used, extraction recoveries higher than 90% were obtained. For PVDF (with a concentration of surfactant of 5% w/w), at low pressure (12 MPa) and 40 degrees C. more than 100 min are necessary to have a quantitative extraction. Oil the other hand, at higher pressure (20 MPa) a quantitative recovery was obtained after few minutes. A strong influence of the temperature on the extraction recovery was also found. In the case of PTFE with a very low content of surfactant (600 ppm) high recovery was obtained at 20 MPa, CO2 flow rate 11 g/h, T = 40 degrees C after 240 min. Our results suggest that extraction with scCO(2) call be a process of applicative interest for the removal of this class of stabilizers from fluoropolymers. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.