New scientific paper – Mass balance of PFAS in drinking water
Eurofins has a longstanding collaboration with Örebro university and takes part in a number of projects on PFAS. A new article has now been accepted and is “in press”. The title is “Further insight into extractable (organo) fluorine mass balance analysis of tap water from Shanghai, China” and is published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology (link below). Enmiao Jiao from Tongji University, Shanghai is the first author of the paper while Patrick van Hees and Patrik Karlsson at Eurofins are co-authors.
Determination of PFAS in the samples
The article deals with the mass balance of organic fluorine in 39 drinking waters from Shanghai. Several analytical methods were employed such as “regular target” PFAS incl ultrashort, TOP (total oxidizable precursors), EOF/EF (extractable (organic) fluorine) and suspect screening. As seen as in many other studies it was found that TFA (trifluoroacetic acid; 1400-8000 ng/l) was dominant among the individual PFAS comprising up to 97%. The detection of the inorganic PF6 and BF4 frequently used in lithium-ion battery (LIB) electrolytes in drinking water is novel as well as the finding that these ions will be included in EOF (or EF). Moreover, PF6 and BF4 could to a large extent “close the gap” of unknowns in the EOF/EF determinations. Also, TFMS (trifluoromethyl sulphonate; 50-280 ng/l) was detected in all samples and the suspect screening revealed the presence of NTf2 (bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide) and OBS (p-perfluorousnonenoxybenzenesulfonate). TFMS and NTf2 are both also utilized in LIB electrolytes as additives together with other applications.
A major part of the study was performed at Örebro University where Enmiao Jiao worked as a guest PhD student. Her work and stay in Sweden were financially supported by Eurofins. Questions about our PFAS analysis and development can be answered by Patrick van Hees (e-mail: patrickvanhees@eurofins.se)
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