Per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of widespread contaminants in the ecosystem, which may cause adverse health effects under high level of exposure.  HPLC-MS/MS is commonly used for accurate and reproducible quantification of individual PFAS compounds in water systems. Triple quadrupole and q-ToF mass analyzers are often reported for PFAS quantification. To the best of our knowledge, an ion trap, a cost-effective mass analyzer, has not yet been used to quantify PFAS. Here, we present a SPE-HPLC-ESI-quadruple ion trap method to perform quantification of 14 different PFAS. The method LOQ is in the range of 2-20 pg/ml, which is comparable to the LOQ reported in EPA METHOD 537_2009. The calibration curves range from 0.5-140 ng/ml. The method was then used to evaluate the effectiveness of a novel reactor for breaking down PFAS and the effect of resin beads for the trapping of PFAS. The results indicate the reactor effectively broke down PFAS in an aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) with their final concentrations lower than PFAS in the control samples. The resin beads were able to remove 76-95% of the 14 PFAS, of which the removal efficiencies 12 of the PFAS was above 95%.

SPE-HPLC-ESI-ion trap method development and validation to quantify per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in water systems

ACS Spring 2022

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