Finding the forever pollutants — fast!

Abstract

The chemical industry has been a double-edged sword for humanity — offering timely solutions while simultaneously creating long-lasting problems. The often-quoted expression ‘Better Living Through Chemistry’ encompasses how many chemists feel about chemistry, but how will society best use chemistry for a sustainable future? This paper outlines our research into the rapid detection of a widespread, persistent and challenging class of pollutants known as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances. These molecules have become ubiquitous through their use in a range of consumer products, industrial manufacturing, and perhaps most significantly in aqueous fire-fighting foams. Perfluorinated and polyfluorinated alkyl substances are known to bioaccumulate, and there are hundreds of known contaminated sites around Australia, and globally. The current methods to identify contaminated sites are very expensive and require specialised analytical instruments, which are often located a long distance from the site of contamination. Our work has developed an instant colour change test for the presence of these pollutants. The goal is for an untrained operator to be able to quickly and accurately identify contamination in their environment.