A new study has unveiled a new method to cost-effectively and practically test for PFAS in water. Led by Griffith University, the novel PFAS detection technique is a portable sensor designed to provide rapid, highly sensitive and selective on-site testing, offering a practical alternative to laboratory-only analysis.
“Many countries, including Australia, have implemented guidelines for PFAS levels in drinking water,” says lead author Ming Zhou from Griffith University’s Australian Rivers Institute. “And there are many ongoing global campaigns for environmental surveillance due to their unbreakable nature and links to numerous health issues.”
Current PFAS testing relied heavily on laboratory-based liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, a process that requires complicated sample pretreatment, expensive laboratory equipment and highly trained technicians, creating a major constraint for routine monitoring and environmental surveillance.
At a cost of exceeding $200 per sample, current methods were often inaccessible for regional areas and developing nations, such as the Pacific Islands.
“This triggered our pursuit for an on-site, low-cost, fast-detection technology,” Zhou says. “If we view the traditional lab test as the ‘PCR test’ of water monitoring, our technology is closer to a rapid test kit, while still providing quantitative results.”
“I was very excited to see the excellent response of our sensor to a specific PFAS,” says Lipeng (Jason) Gan, the Ph.D. candidate who worked with Zhou on this project. “This result shows the potential of the technology to enable fast, selective, and on-site PFAS detection, helping make high-quality PFAS monitoring more affordable and accessible.”
The study ‘Molecularly imprinted polyaniline-functionalized lateral-flow membrane for highly sensitive and selective per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances detection in water’ has been published in Environmental Science and Technology.
