UCT Enviro-Clean® Graphitized Carbon as a Viable Alternative to EPA 1633A Recommended SPE Carbon Cleanup in PFAS Soil Analysis
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are an extremely bioaccumulative and persistent organic chemical that pose significant environmental and human health risks, earning the title of “forever chemicals.” In recent years, there has been massive interest in research communities to study the concentration and species of PFAS in a multitude of environmental and biological matrices.
Amalia M. Kenyon and collaborators evaluated Enviro-Clean® Graphitized Carbon as an alternative to ENVI-Carb™ for dispersive solid-phase extraction (d-SPE) cleanup in PFAS analysis. Because ENVI-Carb™ is commonly used in EPA Method 1633, which covers a diverse range of environmental matrices including soils, sediments, biosolids, wastewater, surface water, groundwater, and tissue samples, the study provides insight into the potential use of this alternative graphitized carbon sorbent within the broader EPA 1633 analytical framework. To assess its performance, the authors compared Enviro-Clean® Graphitized Carbon with ENVI-Carb™, the graphitized carbon sorbent recommended in EPA Method 1633. The comparison was conducted using extracts from three distinct soil samples previously exposed to aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) and known to contain PFAS contamination. This experiment was performed with the hypothesis that the choice of graphitized carbon sorbent would not result in significant differences in the measured PFAS concentrations in the soil samples.
Out of the 40 PFAS analytes included in EPA method 1633A, 20 were detected in the AFFF contaminated soil samples. The PFAS detected consisted of short, medium, and long chain compounds, both neutral and charged, as well as PFAS containing varied functional head groups. Regardless of the differences from analyte to analyte, there was no significant difference in PFAS concentrations between ENVI-Carb™ and Enviro-Clean®, proving that Enviro-Clean® Graphitized Carbon is a suitable substitute for the carbon source that the EPA recommends.
Reference:
Kenyon, A. M.; Leippert, G. Y.; Satchwell, M. F.; Lewis, M. D.; Pflug, N. C.; Newman, L. A. Enviro-Clean® Graphitized Carbon as a Substitute for ENVI-Carb™ for the Analysis of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Soils. Environ. Res. Commun. 2026, 8 (5), 051501.
