Fluorene, a low molecular weight polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), is of immense environmental interest because of its carcinogenicity, teratogenicity, mutagenicity, toxicity and persistence to microbial degradation. Fluorene is a precursor to other fluorene compounds. Fluorene and its derivative can be used as a precursor to fluorene-based dyes.

[1] Paul Olusegun Bankole, Kirk Taylor Semple, Byong-Hun Jeon, Sanjay Prabhu Govindwar. Biodegradation of fluorene by the newly isolated marine-derived fungus, Mucor irregularis strain bpo1 using response surface methodology.  Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2021 Jan 15;208:111619. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2020.111619.