Rapid and sensitive determination of legacy and emerging per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances with solid-phase microextraction probe coupled with mass spectrometry

This study was designed to develop a rapid and sensitive method for quantifying legacy and emerging per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in environmental samples with solid-phase microextraction (SPME) coupled with mass spectrometry (MS). An innovative SPME probe was fabricated via in situ polymerization, and the probe coating was optimized with response surface methodology to maximize the fluorine -fluorine interactions and electrostatic properties and ensure high selectivity for the target PFASs with enrichment factors of 48 -491. The coupled SPME and MS provided a rapid and sensitive method for analyses of PFASs, with excellent linearity ( r >= 0.9962) over the concentration range 0.001 -1 mu g/L and remarkably low detection limits of 0.1 -13.0 ng/L. This method was used to analyze trace PFASs in tap water, river water, and wastewater samples and proved to be a simple and efficient analytical method for selective enrichment and detection of contaminants in the environment.