Trifluoroacetaldehyde, CF₃CHO, is an atmospheric degradation product of several chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) alternatives. It is important to understand the further fate of CF₃CHO in the atmosphere. There is conflicting information on the CF₃CHO photolysis in the literature. In this chamber study, the tropospheric photolysis of CF₃CHO was investigated using broadband actinic radiation and FTIR spectroscopy for detection of the photolysis products. The photolysis produces CF₃ radicals in a yield of unity, which under atmospheric conditions gives dominantly COF₂ with smaller yields of oxides, alkoxy nitrates or per oxynitrates. No formation of CF₃H, HFC-23, was observed under any of the experimental conditions and an estimated upper limit for the yield of HFC-23 of 0.3 % was established. Our results are in contradiction to those published most recently, which claimed to have observed HFC-23, and which has created a lot of debate in the scientific community. This is the first study of broadband UV photolysis of CF₃CHO, combined with FTIR detection of CF₃H.