Automated high-capacity sorptive extraction of volatile per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from drinking water
Presented at EuSP, Crete, 2024
Per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS), are a group of highly persistent synthetic chemicals that enter waterways via numerous sources e.g. aqueous film forming foams (AFFF). They include a wide range of chemicals covering different volatilities, polarities and functional groups with recent reports citing over 6000 compounds of potential interest. This variety in the chemistry and volatility of PFAS classes means that when a speciated analysis is required, multiple techniques will be needed to ensure defensible data.
In this study, we investigated solvent-free sampling techniques, combining sorptive extraction with thermal desorption to extract volatile PFAS in water via GC–MS. These compounds consisted of FTOH, FTAcr, FOSA and FOSE. Two sorptive extraction techniques were compared, one being SPME-arrow and the other being high capacity sorptive extraction (HiSorb ) using divinylbenzene/polydimethylsiloxane (DVB/PDMS) as the preferred phase type. Both techniques were able to extract all target analytes, however HiSorb provided excellent reproducibility and linearity, conveying its potential as a new method for volatile, GC amenable PFAS
