Development and Validation of a Wipe Test Method Using Liquid Chromatography with Tandem Mass Spectrometry for the Determination of Perfluorooctanoate (PFO) on Various Surfaces

Abstract

Perfluorooctanoate (PFO) is the anion of perfluorooctanoic acid. As the ammonium salt, PFO has been used for 50 years as a processing aid in the commercial production of perfluorinated and highly fluorinated polymers. To assess the effectiveness of industrial hygiene controls in processes involving PFO products and intermediates, a wipe test was developed and validated to determine quantitatively the PFO concentration on six surfaces: stainless steel, polycarbonate, Formica, butyl acid suit material, laminated disposable suit material, and a painted surface. Acceptable recovery and precision results were obtained for nonporous surfaces, such as stainless steel, polycarbonate, Formica, acid suit material, and painted surfaces on a 10-cm × 10-cm surface. The analytical method was evaluated over a range of 1 to 23 ng/cm², or 100 to 2300 ng/100 cm². The reporting limit for the method was 100 ng/wipe.

Keywords:

• perfluorooctanoate
• determination
• sampling
• wipe test
• surfaces

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors thank John J. Kozlowski for his help with the initial LC/MS experiments. We also thank DuPont's Industrial Hygiene working group for their valuable input.