Assessment of perfluoroalkyl substances in placenta by coupling salt assisted liquid-liquid extraction with dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction prior to liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry Vela Soria, Fernando Mustieles Miralles, Vicente Fernández Cabrera, Mariana Fátima Perfluoroalkyl substances Placenta Dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction LC–MS/MS HBM4EU The widespread use of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) is resulting in a broad human exposure to these endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), prompting biomonitoring research to evaluate its magnitude and impact, especially during critical windows of exposure such as fetal and perinatal periods. This study was focused on developing a method to determine 10 PFAS in placental tissue by combining salt-assisted liquid-liquid extraction with dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction and using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Chemometric strategies were applied to optimize the experimental parameters. The limit of quantification was 0.02 ng g− 1 for all analytes, and the inter-day variability (as relative standard deviation) ranged from 7.9% to 13.8%. Recoveries ranged from 88.2% to 113.9%. The suitableness of the procedure was demonstrated by assessing the targeted compounds in 20 placenta samples. The highest concentrations were recorded for perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctane sulfonate, with maximum concentrations of 0.62 and 1.02 ng g− 1 and median concentrations of 0.13 and 0.53 ng g− 1 , respectively. Median concentrations of the other PFAS ranged from detected values to 0.08 ng g− 1 . This analytical procedure yields useful data on fetal exposure to PFAS. 2020-11-16T08:13:25Z 2020-11-16T08:13:25Z 2020 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Vela-Soria, F., García-Villanova, J., Mustieles, V., de Haro, T., Antignac, J. P., & Fernandez, M. F. (2020). Assessment of perfluoroalkyl substances in placenta by coupling salt assisted liquid-liquid extraction with dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction prior to liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Talanta, 221, 121577. [DOI: 10.1016/j.talanta.2020.121577] http://hdl.handle.net/10481/64279 10.1016/j.talanta.2020.121577 eng eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/733032 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 3.0 España ELSEVIER