Natural Background Levels of Trifluoroacetate in Rain and Snow

Abstract

It has been shown that some of the fluorinated ethane derivatives being introduced as CFC-replacements can be transformed to TFA (trifluoroacetate) in the atmosphere. Moreover, TFA is extremely stable in the environment, and this has raised questions regarding how widespread TFA is in the environment. We found that TFA is ubiquitous in precipitation: samples of rain from Ireland and Poland and snow from Canada, Sweden, New Zealand, and East Antarctica contained 1-1100 ng/L, and, studying a firn core drilled in Antarctica, concentrations of 3-56 ng/L were measured in layers formed during the 19th century. We have confirmed the preindustrial presence of significant background concentrations of trifluoroacetate in historic precipitation samples from the analysis of firn. Extensive procedures were enforced to prevent sample contamination.

Rainwater trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) in Guangzhou, South China: Levels, wet deposition fluxes and source implication

“…TFA levels in rainwater from Guangzhou were about one order of magnitude higher than those in Mace Head, Ireland in 1996 (Von Sydow et al, 2000), and were much higher than those reported in Baikal, Siberia ) in 1996 (Berg et al, 2000), but in similar range with those reported in Tübingen (Frank et al, 1995), Beijing (Zhang et al, 2005), California and Nevada (Wujcik et al, 1998). The average level in this study was even lower than that in Central Valley, California in 1996 (Wujcik et al, 1998).…”

“…TFA has become a ubiquitous contaminant and has been detected in a variety of environmental media, such as air (Frank et al, 1996), precipitation (Jordan and Frank, 1999;Scott et al, 2006;Zehavi and Seiber, 1996), fog (Römpp et al, 2001), surface waters (Cahill and Seiber, 2000;Scott et al, 2000Scott et al, , 2002Zhang et al, 2005), soils and pine needles Scott et al, 2005b), oceans (Frank et al, 2002;Scott et al, 2005a) and even in the snow of the Arctic and Antarctica (Von Sydow et al, 2000). TFA is extremely stable in the ambient and highly resistant to chemical and biological degradation under normal environmental condition (Emptage et al, 1997;Boutonnet et al, 1999).…”

“…Although the observed TFA levels in aqueous environment were all below the safety level of 0.10 mg L −1 (Berends et al, 1999), high levels have been reported as early as in 1990s. For instance, TFA concentrations were reported as high as 40,900 ng L −1 in Pyramid Lake of the United States (Zehavi and Seiber, 1996); and the levels beyond 1000 ng L −1 were also recorded in rainwater around the world (Frank et al, 1995;Wujcik et al, 1998;Von Sydow et al, 2000;Berg et al, 2000;Scott et al, 2006). Due to the continual input to the environment and the accumulation in terminal water bodies, TFA levels in aqueous environment would keep increasing in the coming decades and more attention should be paid on its potential adverse effects (Berends et al, 1999;Boutonnet et al, 1999;Wiegand et al, 2000).…”

Analysis of trifluoroacetic acid and other short-chain perfluorinated acids (C2–C4) in precipitation by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry: Comparison to patterns of long-chain perfluorinated acids (C5–C18)

“…Earlier methods of analysis of TFA were based on GC with mass spectrometry or GC with electron capture detection [9,10,20,21,24,25]. The LOQ of the GC methods was several ng L −1 .…”

“…Whereas short-chain PFCAs such as TFA are phytotoxic, long-chain PFCAs are considered to be carcinogenic and bioaccumulative. Earlier studies have measured TFA in water samples by gas chromatography (GC) techniques after chemical derivatization [20][21][22]. Because derivatization introduces additional, time-consuming analytical steps in the analysis of TFA, a method to determine TFA using HPLC-MS/MS (which does not require derivatization) will enhance the throughput and robustness of the analysis.…”