Perfluorinated carboxylic and sulphonic acids in surface water media from the regions of Tibetan Plateau: Indirect evidence on photochemical degradation?

ABSTRACT

Perfluorinated surfactants and repellents are synthetic substances that have found numerous industrial and customer applications. Due to their persistence, at least two groups of these substances—perfluorinated carboxylic acids (PFCAs) and perfluorinated sulfonic acids (PFSAs)—are diffused widely in the environment. It is hypothesized that the Tibetan Plateau, is one of few unique places on the Earth, due to its topography, specifically the vast space and high elevation above sea level, geographic location, climate, high solar radiation, lack of industry, little urbanization and general lack of significant direct sources of pollution. There it is believed possible to gain an insight into atmospheric fate (possible photochemical degradation of higher molecular mass and formation of lower molecular mass PFCAs and PFSAs) of PFASs under un-disturbed environmental conditions. Ultratrace analytical method for PFCAs and PFSAs and use of transportation and field blanks, laboratory blanks and isotopically labelled surrogates for recovery control has allowed the determination of nine perfluorinated carboxylic acids and six perfluorinated sulfonic acids at ultra-trace levels in water based samples from the alpine dimension regions of the Tibetan Plateau, the eastern slope of Minya Konka peak at the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau, and also from the city of Chengdu from the lowland of the Sichuan Province in China. The specific compositional pattern of PFCAs and PFSAs and low levels of pollution with those compounds were observed in the central region of the Tibetan Plateau and in the region adjacent to the peaks of Minya Konka in the Eastern Tibetan Plateau. The fingerprint of the compositional pattern of PFCAs and PFSAs in water samples in the central region of the Tibetan Plateau and in the alpine region adjacent to the peaks of Minya Konka in the Eastern Tibetan Plateau may be explained by the result of photochemical degradation with dealkylation of longer chain compounds and formation of shorter chain compounds, which are more resistant to photochemical degradation.

KEYWORDS:

• Perfluorinated substances
• PFOA
• PFOS
• photolysis
• Tibet
• water media

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Mr. Ji-Peng Wang for technical help.

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of the Environment (Project no. B-1106) and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Project nos. 23710032 and 24256004).