Per- and polyfluroalkyl substances (PFASs), associated with widely used aqueous film forming foams (AFFF) are emerging and ubiquitous environmental contaminants. Because they are bio-accumulative, extremely persistent and toxic, several analytical methods and emission limits have been established. Moreover, there is a huge effort surrounding remediation of PFASs contaminated areas. Considering the impacts on both the environment and public health, there is an acute need for rapid, selective, low cost, and field portable PFASs sensing. Although there are established LC/MS/MS methods to measure PFASs at low levels, the methods are tedious and the equipments are expensive and are not field portable. Hereby, we developed ion-selective electrodes (ISEs) with fluorous anion-exchanger membranes for the potentiometric detection of PFASs, inlcuding perfluorooctanoate (PFO–) and perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS–) [1]. The developed ion sensors exhibits exceptionally high selectivities for PFO– and PFOS– over interferents that commonly present in environment and trace level detection limits for PFO– and PFOS–, 1.7 × 10-10 M (0.070 ppb) and 8.6 × 10-10 M (0.43 ppb), respectively. These values are comparable with results obtained using well established techniques such as GC/MS, LC/MS, and LC/MS–MS, but the measurement with ISEs avoids lengthy sample preconcentration, can be performed in-situ, and is less costly. Real life application of these electrodes was demonstrated by in-situ measurements of the adsorption of PFOS– onto Ottawa sand and detection of PFOS– in a background of surface water. The results obtained are consistent with those from an earlier LC–MS study, validating the usefulness of these sensors for environmental studies. With a glass-free solid contact reference electrode, a field-deployable sensor system was fabricated. The sensor system was successfully applied for rapid and direct screening and detecting of PFO– and PFOS– and providing “Yes” or “No” answer in contaminated soil, surface water and drinking water, demonstrating the fast, easy, sample pretreatment-free, selective and economical nature of PFO– and PFOS– detection with fluorous membrane ISEs. [1] Fluorous Membrane Ion-Selective Electrodes for Perfluorinated Surfactants: Trace Level Detection and In-Situ Monitoring of Adsorption onto Sand; Chen, L. D.; Lai, C.-Z. ; Granda, L. P. ; Fierke, M. ; Mandal, D.; Stein, A.; Gladysz, J. A.; Bühlmann, P., Anal. Chem. 2013, 85, 7471–7477.

Field deployable PFASs sensors for contaminated site screening

251st National Meeting (2016)

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