ABSTRACT
This chapter describes in greater detail the challenges associated with perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) analysis and practices to avoid cross-contamination during sample collection and in the analytical laboratory. It provides the various methodologies used to quantify PFAS from different environmental media, including preparatory methods, quality assurance and quality control. The chapter discusses the challenges associated with analytical measurement, including the availability of common reference standards, variance in results between laboratories, and issues associated with PFAS precursor materials. It discusses some general extraction methods: solid-phase extraction, and liquid–liquid extraction. The chapter presents the overview of analytical methods: liquid chromatography, and orthogonal chromatography and gas chromatography. It summarizes emerging technologies for PFAS analytical methods in water matrices. The PFAS analytical methods are total fluorine analysis, total oxidizable precursor assay, particle-induced gamma-ray emission, fluorine-19 nuclear magnetic resonance, and interlaboratory comparisons. PFAS have a wide range of commercial applications as they are used as coatings on many consumer products.
