MONITORING OF PERFLUOROOCTANESULFONATE (PFOS) AND PERFLUOROOCTANATE (PFOA) IN SINGAPORE SURFACE WATER

Abstract

PFCs have a wide variety of applications due to their excellent thermal stability and hydrophobic properties. While recently, there has been an increasing concern about perfluorinated compounds, especially perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) due to their biotic and abiotic persistence and chronic toxicity. To characterize the spatial distribution and seasonal variation of PFOS and PFOA in the surface water of Singapore, water samples from 8 places of Singapore were collected and analyzed, Solid-phase extraction followed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with tandem MS (HPLC/MS/MS) was applied to quantitatively detection PFOS and PFOA. Our results showed that PFOA concentrations in surface waters were in the range of 0.5-15.7 ng/L , while those of PFOS were 0.3-10.2ng/L, moreover, surface waters in the industrial areas at south and northwestern of Singapore are more heavier contaminated. However, more research still needs to be done to improve the efficiency and recovery