Adsorption Characteristics of PFOA & PFOS to Green Tea Zero Valent Iron (ZVI)

My research started this summer with the extraction and quantification of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in VT Soils. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are a diverse group of persistent organic pollutants that are used in a wide variety of industrial applications and are detected ubiquitously in the environment (Buck et al., 2011). PFASs are hydrocarbon chains which have all or at least one hydrogen substituted with fluorine and exhibit hydrophobic properties while the addition of a hydrophilic group at the end of the chain adds hydrophilic properties. The dual hydrophilic-hydrophobic nature and high thermal and chemical stability of PFASs make them extremely versatile for a wide variety of applications across the aerospace, automotive, semiconductor, apparel/textiles, chemical manufacturing and building/construction industries PFASs encompass a wide range of compounds, however, the primary groups are perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (PFCA\u27s) and perfluoroalkyl sulfonic acids (PFSA\u27s) The most common compound each gorup is perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), and Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) respectively. I received 66 samples from throughout the state of Vermont and preformed an extraction to test levels of 14 different PFAS compoundss in the soil. The quantification was done with liquid chromatography mass spectrometry. Once this phase of the project was complete, we looked into a Zero Valent Iron as an in situ remediation tool for PFAS contamination. ZVI has proven to be effective in degradation of organic contaminants but often is ridiculed because of dangerous by products from the synthesis of the particles (Boric Acid from Borohydride). Using polyphenols from green tea as a reducing and capping agent creates ZVI particles without the harmful by products. My research consisted of idealizing the synthesis of Green Tea ZVI and then characterizing the adsorption characteristics of PFOA and PFOS to the ZVI particles