Analytical challenges to determine emerging persistent organic pollutants in aquatic ecosystems

Analytical methods covering novel PFAS were scarce.

“Lorenzo et al. evaluated publications from 2011 to 2017 on the challenges of analysing emerging persistent organic pollutants in aquatic environments and concluded that analytical methods covering novel PFAS were scarce [9].”

Since biological samples consist of complex matrices, development of efficient extraction and clean-up methods has attracted more attention than for other sample types.

“Since biological samples consist of complex matrices, development of efficient extraction and clean-up methods has attracted more attention than for other sample types [6,7,9].”

DLLME methods utilise less extraction solvent and thereby decrease environmental burden, achieving sufficient recoveries (80.6%-121% for tap water, river water and urine) and relatively low detection limits (0.6-8.7 ng/L for water and urine).

“Green chemistry methods using DLLME were recently developed [9,38] that utilise less extraction solvent and thereby decrease the environmental burden, achieving sufficient recoveries (80.6%e121% for tap water, river water and urine samples) and relatively low detection limits (0.6e8.7 ng/L for water and urine samples).”

Oasis HLB series or Strata-X cartridges tend to be employed for analysis of diverse target compounds.

“Oasis HLB series or Strata-X cartridges (Phenomenex, Torrance, CA, USA) tend to be employed for analysis of diverse target compounds [7,9,15,42,45].”

A polymer-based SPE cartridge is commonly employed for PFAS analysis.

“A polymer-based SPE cartridge is commonly employed for PFAS analysis [6,7,9].”

Thanks to improvements in HRMS performance, identification of as-yet-unknown PFAS by non-target analysis has become one of the main streams of PFAS research.

“Thanks to improvements in HRMS performance, identification of as-yet-unknown PFAS by non-target analysis has become one of the main streams of PFAS research [8,9,91].”