Liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry method for determination of perfluorooctane sulfonyl fluoride upon derivatization with benzylamine

Cuirong Sun, Hezhi Sun, Yongquan Lai, Jingjing Zhang, Zongwei CAI*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

41 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Perfluorooctane sulfonyl fluoride (PFOSF) is a main precursor of environmentally ubiquitous perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS), and the quantity released to the environment is substantial. Determination of PFOSF, particularly at low concentrations, presents significant challenges for high-performance liquid chromatography and liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) analyses due to the lack of chromophore and ionizable functional group, respectively. In this study, a new method was developed by derivatizing PFOSF with benzylamine to allow rapid quantitative analysis by using LC/MS. The method demonstrated good linearity in the range from 2 to 80 ng mL-1 with r2 > 0.994 for the derivatization product while the absolute detection limit was 2.5 pg. Liquid-liquid and liquid-solid extraction procedures were established for analysis of water and soil samples, and recoveries were in the range of 51-128%. In addition, the derivatization was selective for PFOSF, whereas PFOS did not nearly react. The developed simple analytical method with good reproducibility might not only be applied for analysis of PFOSF in the environment but also be applicable for supporting investigations on environmental fate of PFOSF, particularly its environmental and biotransformation to PFOS.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)5822-5826
Number of pages5
JournalAnalytical Chemistry
Volume83
Issue number15
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Aug 2011

Scopus Subject Areas

  • Analytical Chemistry

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