HPLC determination of perfluorinated carboxylic acids with fluorescence detection.

Perfluorinated carboxylic acids (PFCAs) represent an important group of persistent perfluorinated organic compounds commonly determined in environmental and biological samples. A reversed-phase HPLC method was developed based on derivatization of the PFCAs with the commercially available fluorescent reagent 3-bromoacetyl coumarin. The method was optimized and this resulted in the efficient separation of PFCAs containing from 3 to 12 carbon atoms in molecule in 25 min run. To improve sensitivity, the preconcentration step has been optimized using Oasis-WAX and C18 sorbents for SPE. A 100-fold preconcentration is achieved by solid-phase extraction with the sorbent C18 Sep-PAK to result in limits of detection in the range from 43 to 75 ppt for the analytes examined, and in the application of the method of water analysis.FigureChromatogram of mixture of perfluorinated carboxylic acids C3-PFCA - C12-PFCA with fluorescence detection after derivatization with 3-bromoacetyl coumarin (b), and blank (a).