Analysis of perfluorooctanesulfonate and related fluorochemicals in water and biological tissue samples by liquid chromatography–ion trap mass spectrometry

Abstract

A method for the determination of perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) in various water and biological tissue samples was developed and validated. The contents of selected PFCs (i.e., perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS), perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) and perfluorodecanoate (PFDA)) in water samples were extracted by the C 18 solid-phase extraction (SPE). The biological tissue samples (frozen-dried fish and oysters) were simply extracted by liquid–solid extraction with MTBE and adding tetrabutylammonium hydrogensulfate (TBA) as an ion-pairing reagent. The analytes were then identified and quantitated by liquid chromatography–ion trap negative electrospray mass spectrometry (LC–ESI ion-trap-MS). Limits of quantitation (LOQ) were established between 0.5 and 6 ng/l in 250 ml of water sample, while 5–50 ng/g (dry weight) for biological tissue sample. Intrabatch and interbatch precision with their accuracy at two concentration levels were also investigated. Precision for these three PFCs, as indicated by RSD, proved to be less than 11 and 17%, respectively. The total contents of PFOA, PFOS and PFDA were detected in concentrations of up to 400 ng/l in various water samples, while up to 1100 ng/g in fish and oyster samples. PFOA and PFDA was the major PFCs detected in water samples and biological tissue samples, respectively.