Practicality evaluation of novel microextraction techniques for the determination of PFAS in food and water samples...

Due to their high stability, persistence, and non-degradability, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are considered to be "forever chemicals" that can be present in a wide range of samples. Towards the development of novel analytical strategies for the reduction of the environmental impact of the analytical scheme, a plethora of novel solid-phase microextraction and miniaturized extraction techniques have been proposed for the determination of PFAS. However, the evaluation of the applicability of these protocols in terms of their practicality is still scarce.

In this article, the Blue Analytical Grade Index (BAGI) was used to evaluate the practicality of the sorbent-based microextraction techniques that were developed during the last decade for PFAS. In total thirty-four protocols were evaluated, resulting in a minimum score of 50.0 and a maximum score of 77.5.

These findings clearly indicate that there is significant room for improvement and there is still a need for the development of microextraction approaches with higher practicality. Moreover, with regards to the best-performing protocols, their greenness was also assessed using the AGREEprep metric to enable a more comprehensive comparison.