What are GenX and PFBS? Why are they important in PFAS analysis?

Analysis of PFAS (per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances) has been a hot topic for environmental labs for the last several years. Currently there are two C8 based PFAS compounds (PFOA and PFOS) with a health advisory level of 70 ppt in drinking water announced by the US EPA. In 2018 at the National Leadership Summit, the US EPA announced that they will work with other US federal agencies to establish human health toxicity values for two additional fluorinated compounds, hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (HFPO-DA, a.k.a. GenX), and Perfluorobutanesulfonic acid (PFBS). They have been made to replace PFOA and PFOS, respectively.

(GenX and its precursor acid hydrolyze into HFPO-DA. Credit: Courtesy of Mark Strynar and Laurence Libelo/US EPA)

If your laboratory has a plan to add these compounds to your PFAS analyte list, HERE is what it looks like on our Raptor C18 column (9304552).

If you already have GenX and PFBS in your analyte panel, look what can be done faster on our Raptor C18 column (9304552). Total runtime of 4 min with often early-eluting PFBS well retained at 1.6 min for reliable quantitation.

Are you looking at even more analytes in the PFAS group? Do you want a sub-2µm particle size column solution?

Stay tuned for more PFAS research updates from us.