Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a large group of synthetic organic compounds with thousands of possible structures. Qualifying and quantifying all individual PFAS are challenging due to the lack of analytical standards or methods. Therefore, analytical methods to determine the total organic fluorine as surrogates are necessary to comprehensively estimate PFAS contamination. Our study successfully validated the adsorbable organic fluorine (AOF) method for total PFAS analysis. In the AOF method, all types of PFAS in water are adsorbed onto activated carbon, mineralized to fluoride through combustion, and quantified as fluoride by ion chromatography. The method has limits of detection and quantification of 300 and 400 ng/L, respectively, more sensitive than the previously reported AOF methods. The recovery of most reference PFAS of various structures ranged from 53% to 113%, with three ultra-short chain PFAS yielded lower recovery due to ineffective adsorption. The interference from water matrices, such as inorganic fluoride and natural organic matter, can be effectively removed by a nitrate resin. This AOF method was applied for water sample analysis, and the results were comparable to other total PFAS analyses, including total fluorine, extractable organic fluorine, total oxidizable precursors, and summed individual PFAS.

Adsorbable organic fluorine analysis as a surrogate to total per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in water samples

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.