PFAS are chemical pollutants in water and the only method used in the past to test for it is to get a sample and test it in a lab. They would find substances used in firefighting foam, stain repellents, and nonstick coatings. Recently with the help of the US Army Corps of Engineers, Jeffrey E Dick and his team have gotten closer to the solution to track it in real-time. They have made an electrode with a coated polymer made by using molecular imprinting. Tested, the sensors detected current for the oxidation of ferrocene methanol. They found that this compound can’t be used in waterways. Then they used a polymer that mimics the PFOS and used electric impedance spectroscopy to calibrate changes in PFOS concentrations. They placed the electrode in a river in North Carolina and found the number of PFOS lower than the limit. But there are still, like actual yield, other factors that may interfere with the signals. In the future, they will test with different polymers to find the best, and hopefully one day they could be put in the water and signals will be sent directly to the recipient.
Pelley, J. (2020, November 25). Polymer-coated electrode detects PFAS in water. Retrieved January 15, 2021, from https://cen.acs.org/analytical-chemistry/chemical-sensing/Polymer-coated-electrode-detects-PFAS/98/web/2020/11
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