The goals of this study were to improve our understanding of the types of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) that occur in wastewater from electronics fabrication facilities and to assess the relative concentrations of PFAS species. We collected wastewater samples from three electronics fabrication facilities (fabs) in the United States. We analyzed the samples by means of high-resolution mass spectrometry and implemented complementary target and nontarget screenings. Twelve of 25 target PFASs were quantified in at least one sample. Five perfluorocarboxylates and perfluorobutane sulfonate were quantified in all samples at concentrations ranging between 4 ng L-1 to 8,040 ng L-1. GenX and perfluorobutanoic acid were also measured, although exclusively in midstream and downstream samples. The sum of the target PFAS concentrations in the discharge samples from each fab were 623 ng L-1, 394 ng L-1, and 376 ng L-1. A nontarget screening was performed with a data-mining software that extracted series of CF2, C2F4, CF2O, and C2F4O homologs. Nontarget screening revealed the presence of 41 homologous series of PFASs comprising 133 homologues. We proposed structures for 15 homologous series of PFASs, which included saturated and unsaturated alcohols, ethers, and carboxylic acids, six of which are reported here for the first time. A semi-quantitative approach was used to estimate concentrations of nontarget PFASs and demonstrated that the sum concentration of all nontarget PFASs was greater than the sum concentration of all target PFASs in eight of the nine wastewater samples. We estimate the sum of target and nontarget PFAS concentrations in the discharge samples from each fab were 1,490 ng L-1, 78,700 ng L-1, and 2,170 ng L-1.

Target and nontarget analysis of per- and polyfluoralkyl substances (PFASs) in wastewater from electronics fabrication facilities

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