IC suppressors determine PFOA and PFOS in water

Metrohm has presented an economic direct-injection method for perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) determination in drinking water.

The traditional method for the determination of anionic perfluorinated surfactants is LC-MS/MS.

The analytical methods for the determination of PFOS and PFOA in water samples generally employ a C18-SPE column, either with or without ion pairing or acidification, followed by LC-MS/MS.

However, this method suffers from relatively high running and investment costs.

Metrohm is offering an economical alternative in terms of both investment on instrumentation and usability: the method is based on suppressed ion chromatography with isocratic elution on a reversed-phase column heated to 35C using an aqueous mobile phase that contains boric acid and acetonitrile.

Conductivity is used for detection.

While PFOA and PFOS determination in low-salt containing water samples can be performed using straightforward direct-injection chromatography, samples with higher alkaline-earth-metal concentration - for example tap, lake, sludge or river-water samples - should pass over a cation exchanger, such as Metrohm's Sample Preparation Module (SPM), prior to separation.

All Metrohm systems come with a three-year warranty and are backed by the company's Applications Laboratory support team.

IC Suppressors feature a 10-year warranty.

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