This Little PIGE Performed a Quick Analysis for Total Fluorine Graham Peaslee Department of Physics Flame Retardant Dilemma & Beyond February 9, 2018
Outline Motivation: PFAS & How to measure them? PIGE as a rapid screening test for fluorine Examples: Consumer products Contaminated groundwater Future Directions…
PFAS: Per- & Polyfluorinated Alkyl Substances PFOA PFOS
ENVIRONMENTAL PERSISTENCE So what is the problem? ENVIRONMENTAL PERSISTENCE BIOACCUMULATES UBIQUITOUS PFOA Industrial release Surfactant release Flame retardant release
PFAS do not degrade; pass through waste-water treatment plant So what is the problem? PFAS do not degrade; pass through waste-water treatment plant Oliaei F, et al., Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2013, 1977-92.
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Current Detection Techniques LC-MS/MS Lengthy Analysis Misses volatiles Needs many standards Cation/Anion/Neutral GC/MS Misses non-volatiles Better word standards, hard to attain appropriate standards LC-MS/MS
Perfluorinated Compounds PFOA Imagine the advantages of being able to spectroscopically detect fluorine… PFOS
Spectroscopy Excitation Source Detector Sample e.g. UV-Vis, FTIR, NMR, XRF, g-ray….
Our Solution: Ion Beam Analysis PIXE PIGE X-ray g-ray
PIGE Instrumentation – 3 MV Tandem Pelletron Accelerator Focus on beam in vacuum. Brought to air
PIGE Analysis of Fluorine
PIGE Analysis of Fluorine
Comparison with LC-MS/MS
Published online 1 February 2017 Open Access >10,000 downloads to date
The Future… Using PIGE to measure total Fluorine… Rapid (inexpensive), Good surrogate for PFAS… Consumer products – already in hand – natural advantage Aqueous samples – Ground water – Drinking water (method developed) need portability
Acknowledgements Meghanne Tighe, John Wilkinson, Sean McGuinness, Walter McLellan, Patrick McGuire, Hannah Olds, Judah VanZandt, Connor Bagwell, Christian Femrite (Notre Dame) Paul DeYoung, Dave Daugherty, Lisa Savagian, Eric Greve, Heather O’Connell, Yujin Liao, Margaret Dickinson, Adam Maley, David Lunderberg, Cody Berkobien, Megan Czmer, Brieana Linton, Shannon Urbanik, Margaret Dickinson, Brandon Miller, Kai Libby, (Hope College) Jennifer Field, Krista Barzen-Hanson, Alix Roebel, (Oregon State) Arlene Blum (Green Science Policy Institute), Jeff Gearhart, Gillian Miller (Michigan Ecology Center), Heather Stapleton (Duke U), Lauren Schaider (Silent Spring Institute), Suzanne Lapi (U. Alabama). gpeaslee@nd.edu
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