Integration of target, suspect, and nontarget screening with risk modeling for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances prioritization in surface waters
Open accessAbstract
Though thousands of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been on the global market, most research focused on only a small fraction, potentially resulting in underestimated environmental risks. Here, we used complementary target, suspect, and nontarget screening for quantifying and identifying the target and nontarget PFAS, respectively, and developed a risk model considering their specific properties to prioritize the PFAS in surface waters. Thirty-three PFAS were identified in surface water in the Chaobai river, Beijing. The suspect and nontarget screening by Orbitrap displayed a sensitivity of > 77%, indicating its good performance in identifying the PFAS in samples. We used triple quadrupole (QqQ) under multiple-reaction monitoring for quantifying PFAS with authentic standards due to its potentially high sensitivity. To quantify the nontarget PFAS without authentic standards, we trained a random forest regression model which presented the differences up to only 2.7 times between measured and predicted response factors (RFs). The maximum/minimum RF in each PFAS class was as high as 1.2-10.0 in Orbitrap and 1.7-22.3 in QqQ. A risk-based prioritization approach was developed to rank the identified PFAS, and four PFAS (i.e., perfluorooctanoic acid, hydrogenated perfluorohexanoic acid, bistriflimide, 6:2 fluorotelomer carboxylic acid) were flagged with high priority (risk index > 0.1) for remediation and management. Our study highlighted the importance of a quantific…
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PFAS monitoring still largely depends on targeted analysis, which is limited to compounds with available analytical reference standards.
“Despite this growing regulatory attention, PFAS monitoring still largely depends on targeted analysis, which is limited to compounds with available analytical reference standards [23,24].”
From Integrated Targeted and Suspect Screening Workflow for Identifying PFAS of Concern in Urban-Impacted Serbian Rivers (2026) · cites this paper as [23]
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Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in the environment
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Antić, I., Buljovčić, M., Cochran, R. E., Živančev, J., Llorca, M., Farré, M., Rakić, D., Tautenhahn, R., & Đurišić-Mladenović, N. (2026) · Toxics · doi:10.3390/toxics14010078 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
“…assessment framework was applied: (1) hazard scoring based on persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxicity (PBT); (2) exposure evaluation combining detection frequency (DF) and concentration magnitude; and (3) integration of hazard and exposure into a composite risk index (RI) for ranking [23,24].”
Influential
- Authors
- Hu, J., Lyu, Y., Chen, H., Cai, L., Li, J., Cao, X., & Sun, W.
- Affiliations
- Peking University (CN)
- Clemson University (US)
- Shandong University of Science and Technology (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Chen, Huan
- Sun, Weiling
- Venue
- Water Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2023-04
- Volume
- 233
- Pages
- 119735
- ISSN
- 0043-1354 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4320084957
- Cited by
- 121
- References
- 8
- Citations by year
- 2026: 43 · 2025: 47 · 2024: 26 · 2023: 5
- FWCI
- 10.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
- www.elsevier.com/legal/tdmrep-license (tdm)
- www.elsevier.com/open-access/userlicense/1.0/ (am, 320 d)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-017 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-037 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-012 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-029 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-004 (stm-asf)
- Locations
- Water Research (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (51925901)
- National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFC3200901)
- U.S. Department of Agriculture
- National Institute of Food and Agriculture (2021-67019-33682)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances research
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Toxic Organic Pollutants Impact
- Life Sciences › Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics › Pharmaceutical Science › Fluorine in Organic Chemistry
- Keywords
- per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, PFAS, non-target screening, suspect screening, target screening, surface water contamination, risk-based prioritization, random forest regression, Orbitrap mass spectrometry, perfluorooctanoic acid, fluorotelomer carboxylic acids, Chaobai River
- MeSH terms
- Beijing, Carboxylic Acids, Fluorocarbons, Water, Water Pollutants, Chemical
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