Perfluorinated compounds in sediments from the Daliao River system of northeast China

Abstract

Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) have received much attention on their distributions in various matrixes of different areas globally, however, little is known about their existences in river sediments of China. In this study, eight target PFCs including perfluorobutane sulfonate (PFBS), perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS), perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), perfluorodecanoic acid (PFDA), perfluorododecanoic acid (PFDoA) and perfluorotetradecanoic acid (PFTA) were determined based upon the upper 10 cm surface sediment samples collected from eleven sites covering three main streams of the Daliao River system in northeast China, which received huge amount of industrial and domestic wastewater annually from the neighbouring areas. Analytical results indicated that total concentrations of PFCs were determined in the range of 0.29–1.03 ng g −1 dry weight in sediments from this river system. As the dominant PFCs contaminants in sediment samples, concentrations of PFOS and PFOA were ranged between <LOQ and 0.37 ng g −1 dry weight and from <LOQ to 0.17 ng g −1 dry weight, respectively, while those of the other six target analytes relating to PFBS, PFHxS, PFNA, PFDA, PFDoA and PFTA were below their LOQs at most of the sampling sites. Additional analyses on vertical variations of total PFCs concentrations in sectioned sediment core samples from three main streams of this river system presented overall decreasing trends of PFCs contaminations with depth in the top 10 cm surface sediments of these rivers.