Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of synthetic chemicals developed in the 1940s, and widely used for their surfactant properties. Due to their prevalent use within consumer products and persistence in nature, PFAS have leached into the air, soil, and water, making exposure widespread. Several studies have shown the presence of PFAS in a wide variety of matrices. Growing concern regarding the presence of these compounds and their persistence within the environment creates the increased need to execute simply and reliably current and evolving regulatory methods on commercially available instrumentation.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency has placed a large focus on developing sensitive, routine, and robust analyses for the detection of PFAS in various matrices, with the largest focus being drinking water. In August 2021, the EPA published Draft Method 1633, for the analysis of 40 PFAS compounds in a variety of matrices. As of August 2023, draft method 4 has been released with the finalized multi-laboratory validated study for aqueous sample analysis. This application note reports results on the validation of EPA Method 1633 for aqueous matrices using the PerkinElmer LX-50™ UHPLC System coupled with the PerkinElmer QSight® 210 Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry System.