Abstract:

The physical and chemical properties and main application fields of perfluorooctanoic acid were briefly reviewed. The source of perfluorooctanoic acid in natural environment, the harm to organisms and the pollution status were introduced. Four main pretreatment technologies of perfluorooctanoic acid were briefly reviewed, i.e., liquid-liquid extraction, solid phase extraction, accelerated solvent extraction and ultrasonic extraction. The applications of high performance liquid chromatography, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, gas chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry in the determination of perfluorooctanoic acid concentration were emphatically reviewed, and the advantages and disadvantages of these methods were summarized. According to the current literature, the method of liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry （LC-MS） for the determination of perfluorooctanoic acid in the environment or in products has been widely used, which does not require the derivation of samples and exhibits fast analysis speed, high recovery rate and good selectivity. Finally, some suggestions on how to control the pollution of perfluorooctanoic acid in the environment were put forward, and some ideas were provided for the establishment of practical and feasible measures to control the pollution of perfluorooctanoic acid in China.

Key words: perfluorooctanoic acid, pollutant, detection technique