Perfluorinated compounds in sediments from the Daliao River system of northeast China

Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) have received much attention on their distributions in various matrixes of different areas globally, however, little is known about their existences in river sediments of China. In this study, eight target PFCs including perfluorobutane sulfonate (PFBS), perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS), perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), perfluorodecanoic acid (PFDA), perfluorododecanoic acid (PFDoA) and perfluorotetradecanoic acid (PFTA) were determined based upon the upper 10 cm surface sediment samples collected from eleven sites covering three main streams of the Daliao River system in northeast China, which received huge amount of industrial and domestic wastewater annually from the neighbouring areas. Analytical results indicated that total concentrations of PFCs were determined in the range of 0.29–1.03 ng g−1 dry weight in sediments from this river system. As the dominant PFCs contaminants in sediment samples, concentrations of PFOS and PFOA were ranged between