This application note presents an efficient and reliable solid-phase extraction method with the Thermo Scientific™ Dionex™ AutoTrace™ 280 instrument for the determination of perfluorinated and polyfluorinated compounds in drinking water per U.S. EPA Method 537.1. The manual solid phase extraction is replaced with a reproducible, reliable and automated AutoTrace 280 SPE system.
Perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) are global pollutants and have been shown to bioaccumulate in the food chain. PFAAs have been detected in livers of fish, birds, and marine mammals from Greenland and the Faroe Islands.1 Biomagnification of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), the predominant fluorochemical detected, was observed along the marine food chain (Figure 1). We demonstrate the performance of the Exactive highresolution, accurate mass benchtop liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) system in the analysis of ten selected perfluoroalkyl acids.