Quantitative determination of perfluorochemicals and fluorotelomer alcohols in plants from biosolid-amended fields...

Analytical methods for determining perfluorochemicals (PFCs) and fluorotelomer alcohols (FTOHs) in plants using liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) were developed, and applied to quantify a suite of analytes in plants from biosolid-amended fields. Dichloromethane-methanol and ethylacetate were chosen as extracting solutions for PFCs and FTOHs, respectively. Nine perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCAs), three perfluorosulfonic acids (PFSAs), and ten FTOHs were monitored. Most PFCAs and perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) were quantifiable in plants grown in contaminated soils, whereas PFCs went undetected in plants from two background fields. Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) was a major homologue (∼10-200 ng/g dry wt), followed by perfluorodecanoic acid (∼3-170 ng/g). [PFOS] in plants (1-20 ng/g) generally was less than or equal to most [PFCAs]. The site-specific grass/soil accumulation factor (GSAF = [PFC](Grass)/[PFC](Soil)) was calculated to assess transfer potentials from soils. Perfluorohexanoic acid had the highest GSAF (= 3.8), but the GSAF decreased considerably with increasing PFCA chain length. Log-transformed GSAF was significantly correlated with the PFCA carbon-length (p < 0.05). Of the measured alcohols, 8:2nFTOH was the dominant species (≤1.5 ng/g), but generally was present at ≥10× lower concentrations than PFOA.