Per- and polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs) are a class of man-made chemicals that have been widely used in various industrial processes and products including fire-fighting foams. In addition to their global widespread application, PFASs are environmentally stable and therefore have been detected globally in water, sediments and atmosphere. There is evidence that exposure to PFASs can lead to adverse health outcomes in humans. Sampling and quantifying PFASs is required to remediate contaminated sites, but the process is time-consuming, requires costly instrumentation and expertise (LC-MS/MS), and fails to capture many organofluorine transformation products and precursors that may also pose health hazards for the public. The objective of this research was to develop and validate field-ready instrumentation to quantify total organofluorine through combustion gas analysis. Part of the goal was to combust PFASs with instrumentation available in most environmental laboratories, a Shimadzu TOC-L. Varying combustion cell temperature, carrier gas and flow rates, catalysts, and HF gas capture mechanisms resulted in &gt;50% recovery of 15 PFASs, linear response between 10ppb and 4000ppb-F, and PFOA and PFOS detection limits of 36ppb-F when HF gas was measured via IC in alkaline impingers. The modified instrument will be mated to a HF gas analyzer to reduce detection limits.  All organofluorine measurement methods are limited by interference from inorganic F (CaF, NaF) present in most environmental samples.  Thus, in follow-on work we attempted to chemically bind inorganic F prior to combustion of the sample.  Two materials were tested and found to remove F well as pH&lt; the pKa of HF.  One also removed PFASs through sorption and ongoing research is focused on minimizing sorption of organofluorine while maximizing removal of inorganic fluorine.<br/>

Quantification of PFASs via total organofluorine measurements with a TOC instrument

ACS Fall 2020 Virtual Meeting

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