Optimizing PFAS Analysis in Complex Environmental Matrices with the PerkinElmer QSight® 500 LC-MS/MS System

Event organized by PerkinElmer.

With over 80 years of experience, PerkinElmer is a global leader in innovative scientific solutions. The company specializes in providing cutting-edge analytical instruments, accessories, consumables, and essential technical support services designed to enhance workflow efficiency in laboratories worldwide.

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Renowned for reliability and quality, PerkinElmer delivers an extensive portfolio of products, services, and expertise. The company believes in the power of purpose-driven science: building a healthier, safer, and more sustainable world.

Session Overview

Growing regulatory focus on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) is driving environmental laboratories to meet increasingly stringent requirements for sensitivity, analytical robustness, and regulatory compliance. The entry into force of EU Directive 2020/2184—transposed into Italian law via Legislative Decree 18/2023 and subsequently updated by Legislative Decree 102/2025—introduced new parameters and limits for monitoring PFAS in drinking water, making reliable analytical methods tailored for complex matrices essential.

This presentation highlights how the PerkinElmer QSight® 500 LC-MS/MS platform provides an advanced solution for PFAS monitoring in accordance with EPA Method 1633 requirements. Based on an isotope dilution approach, this method enables the determination of 40 target PFAS across a wide range of environmental matrices, including surface water, wastewater, sludge, biosolids, soil, and biological tissue.

Special emphasis is placed on key challenges in PFAS analysis, such as background contamination, PTFE-containing components, carryover, surface adsorption, matrix effects, and the need for ultra-trace limits of quantitation. In this context, the unique advantages of PerkinElmer’s proprietary HSID™ (Hot Surface Induced Desolvation) and StayClean™ technologies are featured, highlighting their respective contributions to improving signal-to-noise ratios, reducing chemical contamination, and enhancing long-term operational robustness.

Additionally, EPA Method 1633-compliant application workflows for aqueous and solid matrices, PTFE-free strategies, the use of delay columns, and Large Volume Injection approaches for direct drinking water analysis are presented. Results demonstrate that the QSight® 500 system achieves performance fully aligned with current regulatory demands, delivering high sensitivity, linearity, throughput, and reliability.

The integration of instrumentation, validated workflows, and Simplicity™ 3Q software enables public and private laboratories to implement effective, sustainable PFAS monitoring programs fully compliant with the latest European and national regulations.

Speaker

Alessandro Fabiani, FAS - Field Application Specialist Chrom & Mass Spec Sud Europa, PerkinElmer

 The event will be held in Italian

 English translation available (see below)