Örebro University (Sweden)
Örebro University, Sweden, was established in 1999 and is ranked among the top 500 universities in the world according to Times Higher Education 2022. A close connection between education, research and collaboration is the foundation of their operations.
In 2023/2024, the Eurofins Foundation is contributing to the research project: “Development of a photocatalysis method for oxidative conversion of unknown PFAS into measurable species for assessment of total PFAS in food and environmental samples including drinking water”.
Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are an extensive group of anthropogenic organic compounds which have been extensively used in various industrial and commercial applications for more than half a century. Some of these compounds have been listed on the Stockholm Convention as persistent organic pollutants (POPs), and some have been discontinued for use or have been replaced by other similar chemicals.
More than 4,700 of these chemicals are known to exist but only a few of them are monitored due to the practical limitations of targeting thousands of compounds. A recent study indicated that 64% of the organic fluorinated compounds measured in blood from the Swedish population are of unknown chemical identity.
To effectively assess the extent of PFAS, this project aims to develop a method for indirect quantification of unknown PFAS by using photocatalysis to oxidatively convert known and unknown precursor compounds into measurable PFAS in food and water. This project further aims to overcome the challenges and exceed the performance of the state-of-the-art PFAS conversion methods (persulfate activated hydroxyl radical oxidation), which have limitation in its effectiveness, and to provide a method for oxidative conversion in difficult matrices such as foods and wastewater.
This project contributes to the following United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals
