Detection of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances by simple colorimetric assays

During the past decades, per- and polyfluoroalkyl compounds (PFAS) have attracted great interest in the scientific community. Indeed, these pollutants can bioaccumulate in plants and animals and thus bio-magnify along the food chain. Therefore, an environmentally sustainable and easy-to-use method for the detection and determination of PFAS would generate enormous interest not only in the field of environmental chemistry but also in fields as diverse as laboratory medicine. Several instrument-based approaches exist for detecting PFAS in a variety of matrices. However, they are expensive and require a highly skilled laboratory and workforce. Thus, there is a growing need to develop cheap, fast methods with a low detection limit that can be used even directly in-situ (by a portable device). A method for PFAS determination based on spectroscopy (UV-Vis) would be highly desirable. Therefore, to address this need, the primary objective of this study will be to develop an environmentally friendly, cost-effective and robust method for the determination of PFAS by UV-Vis spectroscopy. PFAS are almost not absorbing UV-visible light; thus, derivatizing agents must be found and methods of their reaction with PFAS established. However, the reactions with hundreds of thousands of substances would require a lot of laboratory work. Fortunately, computational methods such as density functional theory (DFT) can provide valuable information and save time and energy. The application of these sophisticated approaches will result in the identification of numerous substances, which will then be evaluated in a laboratory to create PFAS determination methodologies. In line with the European Union's increasing focus on PFAS, this project has the potential to have a profound impact on environmental monitoring, remediation, and consequently public health through its innovative approach.