Determination of Perfluorooctane Sulfonates (PFOS) in Four Chemical Materials by HPLC/MS/MS

Abstract

A rapid method based on high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC/MS/MS) with accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) or solid phase extraction (SPE) was developed for quantitative determination of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) in the coatings of nonstick pot, food packaging materials, waterborne coatings containing fluoride and fire-fighting foams. The linear calibration curve was obtained in the range of 0.002 - 0.1 μg/mL with a linear correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.998 or 0.999. The recovery for PFOS was in the range of 93.4 - 103% with relative standard deviation of 0.48 - 3.59%. The detection limit for PFOS was 0.4 μg/m2 with a signal-to-noise ratio of 10 for the coatings of nonstick pot and the food packaging materials, and 0.0002% for waterborne coatings containing fluoride and fire-fighting foams, both of which meet the restriction requirement for PFOS content in these chemical materials and consumer products in the EU directives.