Determination of Perfluorinated Compounds in Human Blood Samples by High Performance Liquid Chromatography-Electrospray Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) in human whole blood samples, i.e., perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS), perfluoroheptanoic acid (PFHpA), perfluorooctanoate (PFOA), perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), perluorodecanoic acid (PFDA), perfluoroundecanoic acid (PFUnDA), perfluorododecanoic acid (PFDoDA) and perfluorotetradecanoic acid (PFTA) were detected and separated by High performance Liquid chromatography/electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS/MS) with C18 reversed-phase column, and 13C4-labeled PFOS (MPFOS) as the internal standard in 15 min. PFCs in the blood samples were further extracted with solid phase extraction cartridges after traditional MTBE extraction before analysis. Four kinds of cartridges were tested for their capabilities of PFCs adsorption, including RP, P, C18 and HLB, and then HLB cartridge was selected for its efficiency of PFCs extraction. A comparative study of two C18 columns, Acclaim 120 (50 mm × 4.6 mm, 3 μm) and Acclaim 120 (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) columns were also performed. Both the columns provided similar sensitivities and good separation, with the detection limits 0.01–0.20 μg l−1 for real blood samples. The relative standard deviation of peak area ranged from 3% to 11%. Acclaim 120 (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) column was chosen for its superior in column capacity. Under the optimal conditions, the recoveries of PFCs in blood samples ranged 80%–118%, with the exception of PFTA, the recovery of which was only about 60%.