PFAS detection in soil and sewage sludge via non-destructible fluoro XANES spectroscopy or by liquid extraction followed by EOF sum parameter analysis
Source: BAM Contaminant Transport and Environmental Technologies division
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have emerged over the course of the last 20 years as a global contaminant. In recent decades, increasing production, consumption, and disposal have led to wider distribution of PFAS in the environment, resulting in a steady increase in the number of reported contaminated sites worldwide. Because of current regulations and restrictions on production of PFAS with more than 8 carbon atoms, industrial suppliers shifted their production towards short-chain, less persistent but still hazardous alternatives. Keeping track of the vast development and spreading of those compounds in environmental media, the development of novel analytical approaches is inevitable. Therefore, we applied fluorine K-edge X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy as well as combustion ion chromatography (CIC) to analyze PFAS contamination in various soils and sewage sludges as the PFAS sum parameter “extractable organic fluorine” (EOF). It was possible to proof that fluorine K-edge XANES spectroscopy can be utilized to detect PFAS in highly contaminated soil and sewage sludge samples, but the identification of individual PFAS compounds is not feasible. Since the detected EOF values were significantly higher than reported in previous target analytical–based studies, the contribution of sum parameter analysis can be considered beneficial for the monitoring of PFAS in environmental samples.
Investigation of per‑ and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in soils and sewage sludges by fluorine K‑edge XANES spectroscopy and combustion ion chromatography
Philipp Roesch, Christian Vogel, T. Huthwelker, Philipp Wittwer, Franz-Georg Simon
erschienen in Environmental Science and Pollution Research, Vol. 29, issue 18, pages 26889 - 26899, 2021