Catching PFAS and Other Environmental Pollutants in a Single Step Without Pretreatment [Reading Science]

Direct analysis of sand- and soil-containing samples...
Toward automated monitoring and safety with microfluidic chips

A technology has been developed that can skip the "pretreatment process," which has long been the biggest bottleneck in the analysis of environmental pollutants. It is a microfluidic-based analytical chip that can directly detect pollutants from complex samples containing sand or soil without filtration or separation.

A research team led by Kim Juhyeon, Ph.D. at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT), announced on the 8th that, in collaboration with a team led by Professor Yoo Jaebeom at Chungnam National University, they have developed a microfluidic device that can extract and analyze pollutants from samples containing solids without any separate pretreatment.

In conventional environmental and food analysis, complex pretreatment steps such as filtering, separating, and concentrating the sample have been essential. In particular, when solids are mixed in, as in soil or slurry, there has been a recurring problem in which trace pollutants that need to be detected are lost together during the filtration step. It has also been difficult to automate and has required substantial time and cost.

Contaminated muddy water flowing through a microfluidic chip to extract pollutants. Photo provided by the research team.

To solve these problems, the research team devised a structure in which a small extraction droplet that absorbs pollutants is trapped inside a microchip, then recovered after analysis. While the sample continuously flows, the extraction droplet remains in place and selectively absorbs only the pollutants. The solid particles flow along the channel as they are, so clogging or interference does not occur.

Using this device, the team successfully detected per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which have recently become regulated in Europe, and carbamazepine (CBZ), an anticonvulsant ingredient. They demonstrated that even slurry samples mixed with sand can be extracted in a single step without filtration, and the analytical signal for PFAS was confirmed within 5 minutes. Carbamazepine extracted from slurry samples was verified through high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis.

Photo of the research team. From the left: Kim Juhyun, PhD, Researcher at Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (corresponding author), Choi Seongwook, student researcher (first author), Yu Jaebeom, Professor at Chungnam National University (corresponding author).

The researchers expect this technology to serve as a platform that simplifies analytical workflows while maintaining reliability, with potential applications not only in environmental pollution monitoring but also in food safety testing and the automation of pharmaceutical and bio-sample analysis.

Kim Juhyeon, Ph.D. at KRICT, explained, "By consolidating complex pretreatment steps into a single step, this technology is advantageous for on-site analysis and automated systems." Lee Youngguk, President of KRICT, evaluated it as "a technology that can simultaneously enhance the accuracy and efficiency of environmental and food analyses, which are directly linked to public safety in daily life."

This research achievement was published as the cover article in the December 2025 issue of ACS Sensors (impact factor 9.1), an international journal in the field of sensors. Kim Juhyeon and Professor Yoo Jaebeom served as corresponding authors, and Choi Seonguk, a student researcher at KRICT, participated as the first author. The research was supported by KRICT's basic research program, the Basic Research Laboratory (BRL) program of the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Research Foundation of Korea, and the Korea-Switzerland Innovation Program.