Filling the Gaps in PFAS Detection: Integrating GC-MS Non-Targeted Analysis for Comprehensive Environmental Monitoring and Exposure Assessment

作者：Seth Newton, John A. Bowden, Nathaniel Charest, Stephen R. Jackson, Jeremy P. Koelmel, Hannah K. Liberatore, Ashley M. Lin, Charles N. Lowe, Sofia Nieto, Krystal J. Godri Pollitt, Anna R. Robuck, Paweł Rostkowski, Timothy G. Townsend, M. Ariel Geer Wallace, Antony Williams · 发表于：Environmental Science & Technology Letters · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1021/acs.estlett.4c00930 · 被引用次数：50 · 研究领域：Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances research、Toxic Organic Pollutants Impact、Air Quality and Health Impacts

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have garnered increasing attention in recent years and non-targeted analysis (NTA) has become essential for elucidating novel PFAS structures. NTA and PFAS research have been dominated by liquid chromatography - mass spectrometry (LC-MS) with gas chromatography - mass spectrometry (GC-MS) used less often as evidenced by bibliometrics. However, the performance of GC-MS in NTA studies (GC-NTA) rivals that of LC-ESI-MS and GC-MS is shown to cover a complimentary chemical space. An LC-ESI-MS amenability model applied to a list of approximately 12,000 PFAS revealed that less than 10% of known PFAS chemistry is predicted to be amenable to typical LC-MS analysis. Therefore, there is strong potential for applying GC-MS methods to more fully assess the PFAS environmental contamination landscape, uniquely shedding light on both known and novel PFAS, especially within the chemical space realm of volatile and semi-volatile PFAS. Waste streams from fluorochemical manufacturing facilities have been heavily studied using LC-MS and targeted GC-MS; however, GC-NTA is needed to discover novel PFAS that are not amenable to LC-MS emitted from facilities. Studies on the incineration of PFAS-containing materials, such as aqueous film forming foam, have focused on the destruction of parent compounds and little is known about the transformation products formed during such processes. GC-NTA holds the potential to elucidate transformation products formed when...