Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) like perfluorooctane acid (PFOA) and sulfonate (PFOS) are increasingly being recognized as US and global environmental concerns. Their best-known uses include providing fabrics with stain- and water-resistance and nonstick properties to cookware, in firefighting foams, and the manufacture of electronic products. Qualities such as durability that have made PFAS a desirable chemical also contribute to its persistence in the environment and in the human body where they can cause reproductive and developmental, liver, kidney, immunological effects, cancer, and thyroid hormone disruption. It has now been shown that PFAS contamination of drinking water and groundwater pose a significant and immediate health hazard that demands response and at one contaminated site has triggered an EPA Superfund designation. Unfortunately, there are no effective remediation methods for PFAS and any attempt at widespread treatment plans would be prohibitively expensive. The proposed Phase 1 SBIR effort will validate a solution to this problem by designing, synthesizing, and demonstrating novel custom-designed adsorbents that can be used as passive and easily regenerated PFAS-sponges.
PFAS contamination of soil and drinking water presents a clear and immediate health hazard to people and the environment. We have no cost effective remediation solution to this widespread environmental disaster. Without a new innovation such as those presented in this SBIR proposal, eliminating the risk of exposure to these toxins cannot be achieved.
