Oasis™ WAX for PFAS Analysis

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of synthetic chemicals that pose significant environmental and health challenges due to their persistence and bioaccumulation. PFAS testing is one of the most pressing issues facing analytical labs today. As global attention grows, so does the demand for reliable answers.

Technologies such as liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/ MS) and high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) can be essential for assessing PFAS contamination accurately. Discover how advanced LC-MS/MS and HRMS technologies are helping scientists and regulators tackle PFAS challenges head-on.

From sample preparation to data analysis, explore how Waters Corporation provides the tools needed to measure, manage, and mitigate the impact of PFAS, driving scientific progress and regulatory compliance.

Environmental contamination by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and rising concerns about its long-term impacts on the general population, have increased the urgency for wider PFAS analysis. Initially the focus was solely on environmental matrices but has now expanded into food analysis due to the risk to consumers. Accordingly, regulations and guidance documents have been released to assure the quality of water bodies, drinking water and most recently also for food and feed. Here, Waters describes the workflow of its sample-to-result approach for PFAS analysis that can be incorporated into any lab whether the focus is food, water or environmental.

Due to rising concerns about the long-term impacts of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) on human health, many agencies across the globe have been studying the occurrence of PFAS in food. Waters™ previously developed a method for the determination of PFAS in complex food commodities such as fish, meat, edible offal, and eggs which requires a comprehensive sample extraction and clean-up. This application brief shows the successful evaluation of the performance of this method by interlaboratory study. It is based upon an alkaline extraction, sample clean-up using Oasis™ WAX for PFAS Analysis SPE cartridge and determination using ACQUITY™ UPLC™ System fitted with the PFAS Analysis Kit, Isolator Column and Xevo™ TQ-XS Tandem Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer. A reference material of fish containing PFHxS, PFOS, PFOA, and PFNA was sent to seven Waters laboratories, along with standard solutions containing native PFAS compounds and isotopically labelled analogues. For the four PFAS analytes, trueness of the method was determined to be within the range of 102 to 121%. Repeatability within laboratories was <20% and between laboratory reproducibility ≤30%.

Discover how waters_connect software solutions are transforming PFAS laboratory operations