Fast and simple determination of perfluorinated compounds and their potential precursors in different packaging materials.

A simple and fast analytical method for the determination of fourteen perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), including three perfluoroalkylsulfonates (PFSAs), seven perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCAs), three perfluorophosphonic acids (PFPAs) and perfluorooctanesulfonamide (PFOSA) and ten potential precursors, including four polyfluoroalkyl phosphates (PAPs), four fluorotelomer saturated acids (FTCAs) and two fluorotelomer unsaturated acids (FTUCAs) in different packaging materials was developed in the present work. In order to achieve this objective the optimization of an ultrasonic probe-assisted extraction (UPAE) method was carried out before the analysis of the target compounds by liquid-chromatography-triple quadrupole-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-QqQ-MS/MS). 7 mL of 1 % acetic acid in methanol and a 2.5-min single extraction cycle were sufficient for the extraction of all the target analytes. The optimized analytical method was validated in terms of recovery, precision and method detection limits (MDLs). Apparent recovery values after correction with the corresponding labeled standard were in the 69-103 % and 62-98 % range for samples fortified at 25 ng/g and 50 ng/g concentration levels, respectively and MDL values in the 0.6-2.2 ng/g range were obtained. The developed method was applied to the analysis of plastic (milk bottle, muffin cup, pre-cooked food wrapper and cup of coffee) and cardboard materials (microwave popcorn bag, greaseproof paper for French fries, cardboard box for pizza and cinema cardboard box for popcorn). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first method that describes the determination of fourteen PFCs and ten potential precursors in packaging materials. Moreover, 6:2 FTCA, 6:2 FTUCA and 5:3 FTCA analytes were detected for the first time in microwave popcorn bags.