TRANSFLUOR

In Southern Germany a contamination of agricultural soils with extractable organic fluorine (EOF) was detected, amounting up to mg/kg levels for some sites. Targeted analysis of perfluoroalkyl carboxylic and sulfonic acids (PFAAs) and two polyfluoroalkyl phosphate esters (PAPs) could only explain 10 to 60 % of the EOF. Many fluorinated chemicals that have been used water- and oil-proofing of surfaces (e.g. in the paper and board industry) in the early 2000s are fluorotelomeralcohol- (FTOH) or perfluorooctane sulfonamidoethanol- (FOSE) based products. These chemicals can be transformed in the environment to form a wide range of transformation products. In the present project a chemical analytical multi-method will be developed to quantitatively analyze 7 different classes of transformation products of FTOH- and FOSE-based precursors in soil and plant samples. The method will be validated and applied to analyze relevant soil and plant samples from the contaminated sites. The results build an integral part of the mass balance approach of the EOF concept, therewith enabling to close the current gap between targeted single substance analysis and EOF measurements.