Historical and emerging per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) have garnered significant interest from the public and government agencies from the local to federal levels. The continuing evolution of PFAS chemistries presents a challenge to the environmental monitoring, where ongoing development of targeted methods necessarily lags the discovery of new chemical compounds. There is a need, therefore, to have forward-looking methodologies that can detect emerging and unexpected compounds, monitor these species over time, and resolve details of their chemical structure to enable future work. To this end, a primary target analysis method for simultaneously determining 89 PFAS in water and packaging samples was developed and validated by liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS). This developed target method was further extended to suspected screening method which covered 4777 PFAS retrieved from the NORMAN substance database. Mass spectrometry fragmentation and retention index predictions of the studied PFAS were established for their screening by LC-HRMS. At least, a non- target screening method was developed and offered a broad base detection approach. Targeted methods provide superior quantification when reference standards are available but are intrinsically limited to expected compounds when performing analysis. In contrast, a non-targeted approach can identify the presence of unexpected compounds and provide some information about their chemical structure. Applications of these analytical methods on water and packaging samples will be provided.
