Occurrence and partition of perfluorinated compounds in water and sediment from Liao River and Taihu Lake, China

► PFCs are widely present in surface water and sediment of Liao River and Taihu Lake. ► PFOS and PFOA are at similar level to that in the rivers, Japan but lower than in Great Lakes. ► PFOS and long chain PFCAs prefer to partition in sediment. ► Log K oc s of PFHxS, PFOS and PFOA are significantly lower than PAHs, HCHs and DDTs. The concentrations of four perfluorinated sulfonate acids (PFSAs) and 10 perfluorinated carboxylate acids (PFCAs) were measured in water and sediment samples from Liao River and Taihu Lake, China. In the water samples from Taihu Lake, PFOA and PFOS were the most detected perfluorinated compounds (PFCs); in Liao River, PFHxS was the predominant PFC followed by PFOA, while PFOS was only detected in two of the samples. This suggests that different PFC products are used in the two regions. PFOS and PFOA in both watersheds are at similar level as in the rivers of Japan, but significantly lower than in Great Lakes. The contributions of PFOS and long chain PFCAs in sediments were much higher than in water samples of both watersheds, indicating preferential partition of these PFCs in sediment. The concentrations of PFOS and PFOA were three orders of magnitude of lower than that of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the same sediments. The average sediment–water partition coefficients (log K oc ) of PFHxS, PFOS and PFOA were determined to be 2.16, 2.88 and 2.28 respectively.