Perfluorinated carboxylic acids (PFCAs) represent an important group of persistent perfluorinated organic compounds commonly determined in environmental and biological samples. A reversed-phase HPLC method was developed based on derivatization of the PFCAs with the commercially available fluorescent reagent 3-bromoacetyl coumarin. The method was optimized and this resulted in the efficient separation of PFCAs containing from 3 to 12 carbon atoms in molecule in 25 min run. To improve sensitivity, the preconcentration step has been optimized using Oasis-WAX and C18 sorbents for SPE. A 100-fold preconcentration is achieved by solid-phase extraction with the sorbent C18 Sep-PAK to result in limits of detection in the range from 43 to 75 ppt for the analytes examined, and in the application of the method of water analysis.FigureChromatogram of mixture of perfluorinated carboxylic acids C3-PFCA – C12-PFCA with fluorescence detection after derivatization with 3-bromoacetyl coumarin (b), and blank (a)

Abstract. Perfluorinated organic compounds have been recognized in recent years as globally distributed persistent organic pollutants of an entirely anthropogenic origin, but present already even in the most remote places of the globe, including organisms of wild fauna. Numerous studies have also shown that they are contained in human organisms all over the world. In this work a special attention is given to perfluorinated carboxylic acids (PFCAs), widely used in various areas of modern life. New methods developed for their determination using the HPLC with fluorescence detection and capillary electrophoretic methods are discussed, as well as the new method for the determination of total organic fluorine