Water quality is of the utmost importance and recently the importance of analyzing water for emerging contaminants has been brought to light. Among the emerging compounds being analyzed are perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) which have been found to be persistent environmental contaminants derived from various industries. For example, perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) has been used in a number of different industries, including the semiconductor and photographic industries, in some firefighting foams and in hydraulic fluids used in the aviation industry. Modern analytical labs are looking to automation to help reduce solvent usage and increase sample throughput while ensuring the high quality of the resulting data.
A single X-Y-Z coordinate autosampler commonly used for sample introduction in GC or HPLC can be used to perform a wide variety of sample preparation techniques using a single instrument and control software. The sampler can also be configured as part of the LC/MS/MS system.
In this report, the complete automation of an on-line SPE-LC/MS/MS method used for the determination of perfluorinated compounds in water samples is discussed. Calibration curves were prepared and limits of quantitation were determined at levels near 0.01 ng/mL for all tested PFCs using a 1 mL sample volume. The average precision for the PFCs examined ranged from 1.73 % to 11.7 % CV and the average accuracy for the PFCs examined ranged from 90.6 % to 110 %.
