Perfluorooctanoic acid or PFOA (C7F15COOH), is widely used in food packaging and wrappings, and as a soil repellant.  It is also known for its diverse hydrophobic and oleophobic applications.  Recently, PFOA has gained lot of negative publicity and is notoriously regarded as an emerging global aquatic pollutant.  Due to its high solubility in water (3.4 g/L), PFOA can easily enter human bodies via drinking water and food sources, which results in bioaccumulation and toxicological effects.  Due to the stability of C-F bonds in PFOA, half-live of PFOA can span 1-3.5 years in humans.  This slow accumulation of PFOA in blood plasma can potentially harm liver, kidneys and prostate glands.  Currently, nearly 98% of US population has PFOA in their blood.  Several US states are proposing a ban on PFOA by 2015, while setting limits of 0.5 mg/L limit for safe drinking water.  Structure of PFOA.H2O explains for its high aqueous solubility of otherwise hydrophobic perfluorohydrocarbons.   Carboxylate groups form very tight (1.68-2.098 �) hydrogen-bonding channels (fig 1) with water molecules. This system will be compared to PFOA-RNA interactions and Hirshfeld analysis will be presented for PFOA monohydrate.

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA): Structural study of an emerging global environmental pollutant

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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