Oral Presentation Royal Australian Chemical Institute National Congress 2026

Portable LC-MS as a tool for multi‑matrix PFAS assessment and time‑critical field‑based decision‑making (137042)

Ibraam Mikhail 1 2 , Yonglin Mai 2 , Leo Lebanov 1 2 , John Lam 3 , Nuwanthika Kankani Durage 1 2 , Matthew Askeland 4 , Andrew Gooley 1 3 , Brett Paull 1 2
  1. ARC Training Centre for Hyphenated Analytical Separation Technologies (HyTECH), School of Natural Sciences, University of Tasmania, PO Box 845, Sandy Bay 7006, Tasmania, Australia
  2. Australian Centre for Research on Separation Science (ACROSS), School of Natural Sciences, University of Tasmania, PO Box 845, Sandy Bay 7006 , Tasmania, Australia
  3. Trajan Scientific and Medical, 7 Argent Place, Ringwood, Victoria 3134, Australia
  4. ADE Consulting Group, Unit 6/7 Millennium Court, Silverwater, New South Wales 2128, Australia

Portable liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) offers a practical solution for rapid, on‑site screening of per‑ and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). We deployed a compact, pallet‑mounted LC-MS platform, comprising a Versiti liquid chromatograph, Shimadzu autosampler, and single‑quadrupole mass spectrometer, across multiple Australian locations to evaluate portability, robustness, and analytical performance in real field conditions.

The first major deployment involved a >3,000 km mobile laboratory campaign from Melbourne (Victoria, VIC) to Nudgee (Queensland, QLD), enabling on-site PFAS analysis at industrial and legacy-impacted sites in Ormeau (QLD), Budgewoi (New South Wales, NSW), and the Central Coast Region (NSW), alongside shoreline surveys across QLD, NSW, and VIC. Method detection limits (MDLs) for the 10 targeted PFAS ranged from 1.9 to 7.5 μg/kg in soil, and the workflow supported processing, extraction, and analysis of 24 soil samples within 8 hours. Accuracy was confirmed using a proficiency‑testing soil (AQA 22 13; <23% deviation), and strong agreement with centralized LC‑MS/MS was achieved for Budgewoi samples (r = 0.923, p < 0.0001). Over 40 shoreline samples produced no false positives, demonstrating reliable rapid screening. The system could be fully deployed and operational within 20 minutes and ran entirely on a petrol‑powered generator, with remote troubleshooting available as required.

A second field demonstration at a legacy‑impacted site in Cambridge, Tasmania, further evaluated system resilience following transport via an 11‑hour Bass Strait ferry crossing. Freshwater, soil, and soil pore water were processed using rapid on‑site solid‑phase and solid–liquid extraction protocols, enabling 13 environmental samples to be analysed within 6 hours. Measurements revealed clear differences in the distribution of short‑ versus long‑chain PFAS and between carboxylate and sulfonate classes across soil and pore‑water matrices.

Together, these deployments demonstrate that portable LC‑MS allows reliable, multi‑matrix PFAS assessment within a single field shift, facilitating informed sampling and on‑site decision‑making and complementing laboratory‑based analysis to support effective remediation strategies.