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Development of a High-throughput Targeted Analysis Method for Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Drinking Water
Citation:
Miller, K., J. McCord, C. Fuller, M. Strynar, AND M. Medina-Vera. Development of a High-throughput Targeted Analysis Method for Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Drinking Water. Pittcon 2021, Virtual, March 08 - 12, 2021.
Impact/Purpose:
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are emerging contaminants that are present ubiquitously around the world. Many new PFAS are being manufactured as an alternative to legacy PFAS, which makes monitoring the environment for these chemicals difficult when there is a broad range of PFAS classes. This presentation will address developing a high-throughput method for targeted analysis of PFAS in drinking water. This research will discuss an optimized workflow using online solid phase extraction, which will be compared to the traditional offline approach. By using online solid phase extraction, sample preparation time will be significantly decreased. A high-throughput method is important for monitoring the many emerging PFAS contaminants in the environment. This work will help other environmental researchers who want an automated (i.e., quicker) way to assess PFAS concentrations in drinking water.
Description:
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are emerging contaminants widely used in a variety of industrial and consumer applications (e.g., fire-fighting foams, cosmetics, food wrappers, household products, etc.). These man-made chemicals persist ubiquitously in various environmental media and have been detected in drinking water at trace concentrations. As a result, states and drinking water utilities are increasingly sampling treated drinking water to assess their communities’ PFAS levels. In order to scale up operations that would facilitate screening treated water for PFAS on a regular basis, a quicker approach is needed. This study addresses the need for high-throughput targeted methods that analyze for multiple PFAS classes in drinking water. In this research, EPA developed a targeted analytical method to analyze 16 PFAS in drinking water samples. Method development included creating a new workflow that utilized automated online solid phase extraction (SPE). By using online SPE, sample preparation time is significantly reduced. This new approach was compared to the previous offline SPE workflow in terms of reproducibility, limits of detection, and recovery efficiencies. Ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-HRMS) was used to detect and quantify 9 perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (PFCA) and 7 perfluoroalkanesulfonic acids (PFSA). Target analytes from PFCA and PFSA classes included C4-C12 and C4-C10, respectively. An automated high-throughput targeted analysis method for detecting PFAS in drinking water will help researchers and utilities more quickly monitor for these emerging contaminants.
