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2023 (English)In: Environmental Science and Technology, ISSN 0013-936X, E-ISSN 1520-5851, Vol. 57, no 38, p. 14330-14339Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
The ubiquitous occurrence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and the detection of unexplained extractable organofluorine (EOF) in drinking water have raised growing concerns. A recent study reported the detection of inorganic fluorinated anions in German river systems, and therefore, in some samples, EOF may include some inorganic fluorinated anions. Thus, it might be more appropriate to use the term "extractable fluorine (EF) analysis" instead of the term EOF analysis. In this study, tap water samples (n = 39) from Shanghai were collected to assess the levels of EF/EOF, 35 target PFAS, two inorganic fluorinated anions (tetrafluoroborate (BF4-) and hexafluorophosphate (PF6-)), and novel PFAS through suspect screening and potential oxidizable precursors through oxidative conversion. The results showed that ultra-short PFAS were the largest contributors to target PFAS, accounting for up to 97% of ΣPFAS. To the best of our knowledge, this was the first time that bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (NTf2) was reported in drinking water from China, and p-perfluorous nonenoxybenzenesulfonate (OBS) was also identified through suspect screening. Small amounts of precursors that can be oxidatively converted to PFCAs were noted after oxidative conversion. EF mass balance analysis revealed that target PFAS could only explain less than 36% of EF. However, the amounts of unexplained extractable fluorine were greatly reduced when BF4- and PF6- were included. These compounds further explained more than 44% of the EF, indicating the role of inorganic fluorinated anions in the mass balance analysis.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
American Chemical Society (ACS), 2023
Keywords
bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (NTf2), extractable fluorine (EF), hexafluorophosphate (PF6−), suspect screening, tetrafluoroborate (BF4−), ultra-short PFAS
National Category
Environmental Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-108322 (URN)10.1021/acs.est.3c02718 (DOI)001068515100001 ()37710968 (PubMedID)2-s2.0-85172425821 (Scopus ID)
Funder
Knowledge Foundation, 20160019Swedish Research Council Formas, 2020-02032
Note
The authors from ORU acknowledge the funding from the Knowledge Foundation (KKS) within the Enforce Research Profile (20160019), Sweden, and Swedish Research Council FORMAS (2020-02032) and grant from Eurofins Environment Testing Sweden AB. The study was partly financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Project of China(2021YFC3200801). E.J. also acknowledges the financial support from the China Scholarship Council (grantno. 202206260120).
2023-09-182023-09-182023-10-13Bibliographically approved