Estudio de la presencia de compuestos perfluorados en crustáceos y moluscos

Author

Argenté Baxeras, Carla

Abstract

The analysis of perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) is complicated since they are found in the environment at trace levels. PFCs, also known as perfluoroalkylated substances (PFAS), are organofluorine compounds that contain carbon-fluorine bonds and CC bonds, as well as other heteroatoms. These organics of synthetic origin have been produced for decades primarily as surface agents in products such as fast food packaging, rainwear, and fire fighting foams. PFCs have emerged as significant global environmental pollutants with persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic properties, and therefore PFOS and PFOA (two of the PFCs studied) will no longer be usable worldwide as of 2020, with a transition period until 2025. The possibility of including the compound PFHxS and its salts in Annex A of the Stockholm Convention is also being studied. In this work, an analytical method based on liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS / MS) has been developed to determine PFCs in shellfish samples. The PFCs studied have been perfluoropentaenoic acids (PFPeA), perfluorohexanoic (PFHxA), perfluoroheptanoic (PFHpA), perfluorooctanoic (PFOA), perfluorononanoic (PFNA), perfluorodecanoic (PFDA), perfluorodecanoic (PFluorodecanoic) (PFluorodecanoic) (PFluorodecanoic) PFTeA), perfluorooctanesulfonic (PFOS) and perfluorobutanesulfonic (PFBS). The chromatographic conditions have been optimized taking into account the chemical structure and the physicochemical properties of the analyzed compounds. An Acquity BEH C18 column (2.1 x 100 mm, 1.7 microns) was used, which allowed the separation of the 12 compounds in 10 minutes. Furthermore, the performance of the instrument method (LC-MS / MS) has been studied in terms of linearity, IDL, MDL, LOQ, and intra-day precision. Finally, samples of mussel, cuttlefish, octopus, squid, prawn, gambot, prawn, and Norway lobster have been analyzed, where high levels of long-chain PFCs were obtained in the spleen of octopus and cuttlefish; and also in the heads of shrimp, gambot, prawn and Norway lobster in the range of ng g-1.

 

Director

Gómez Canela, Cristian
Díaz Ferrero, Jordi

Degree

IQS SE - Master’s Degree in Analytical Chemistry

Date

2021-09-20