Perfluorinated Reference Standard

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have emerged as one of the most closely regulated classes of emerging environmental contaminants globally, driven by their extreme environmental persistence, bioaccumulation potential, and associations with endocrine disruption and carcinogenicity. The US EPA has recently imposed stringent maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) for multiple PFAS in drinking water, EFSA continues to update dietary exposure assessments across EU member states, and China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment has designated PFAS as priority new pollutants requiring targeted remediation. Rapidly tightening regulatory requirements worldwide are driving sustained growth in laboratory demand for high-quality PFAS reference standards.

The analytical challenge in PFAS monitoring lies in the extremely low target concentrations — often at ng/L to pg/L levels in drinking water — combined with complex matrix interference and significant chromatographic behavior differences across PFAS chain lengths and functional groups, placing exacting demands on standard purity and assigned-value accuracy. The catalog covers perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCAs including PFOA, PFBA, and PFHxA), perfluorosulfonic acids (PFSAs including PFOS, PFHxS, and PFBS), perfluorophosphonic acids, and next-generation alternatives including HFPO-DA (GenX) and fluorotelomer-based compounds, supporting compliance testing across drinking water, surface water, groundwater, soil, sediment, food, and consumer product matrices.

All CATO PFAS reference standards are supplied with full Certificates of Analysis incorporating NMR and LC-MS value assignment, measurement uncertainty reporting, and long-term stability monitoring data, meeting the requirements of ultra-trace analytical applications. Most are available from stock, with deuterium-labeled isotope internal standards available for key analytes and custom mixed standard solutions available on request.