Preliminary Study on Perfluorinated Compounds in Waters from the Yellow River Estuary Area by Utilizing Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry/Mass Spectrometry

Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) are the permanent organic pollutants that have attracted global concern in recent years. They are widely used in large amounts in many products, such as stain-resistant carpets and fabrics, fire-fighting foam and agrochemicals since they have high thermal and chemical stability. PFC compounds have been detected ubiquitously in the environment. Investigation has been conducted in this work on the contents and distributions of 19 PFCs in river water, shallow ground water and tap water from the Yellow River Estuary Area by Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry/Mass Spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). Furthermore, the source of 19 PFCs is discussed in this paper. The results indicate that PFBA and PFOA are the two major compounds in the Yellow River water with ranges of 1.61~4.20 ng/L and 2.04~3.36 ng/L, respectively. Meanwhile, PFOS was detected at lower levels, ranging from 0.90 to 1.31. PFCs were strongly detected in shallow ground water samples. PFBA and PFOA were also the two major compounds in tap water with ranges of 1.62~3.24 ng/L and 4.66~9.34 ng/L. The concentration profiles of PFCs were different between the river water and tap water. PFOS concentrations in river water from the Dongying Yellow River Estuary area were consistent with surface water in other cities of northern China, but significantly lower than those from the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta. PFOA concentrations in river water from the Yellow River Estuary area were consistent with ground river waters in Hohhot and Beijing Guanting Reservoir, but lower than that from other places in China.