Simultaneous Determination of Several Trace Volatile Phenols in Drinking Water by Capillary Gas Chromatograph

Capillary gas chromatography was established for simultaneous determination of trace volatile phenols in drinking water,including phenol,2-chlorophenol,p-methylphenol and 2,4-dichloro phenol.The samples,extracted with mixture of sulfuric acid and ether and reextracted by sodium hydroxide,then extracted with the same mixture indicated above were quantified by external standards using a capillary column with a flame ionization detector.The equations for linear regression calibration curves of phenol,2-chlorophenol,p-methylphenol and 2,4-dichlorophenol are y=15.275x +2.5942(r=0.9995),y=11.42x + 2.9701(r=0.9992),y=15.506x + 3.6894(r=0.9996) and y=8.9453x–2.185(r=0.9991),respectively,and detection limits to these phenols(S/N=3) were 9.5×10-5μg·mL-1,1.3×10-4μg·mL-1,9.4×10-5μg·mL-1 and 1.6×10-4μg·mL-1,individually.The linear ranges for measuring these phenols were 3.2×10-4~15μg·mL-1,4.3×10-4~9.1μg·mL-1,3.1×10-4~16μg·mL-1 and 5.3×10-4~5.3μg·mL-1,separately.Three different levels of standard additions were added individually to standard mixture solutions of volatile phenols,and at each level five replicate samples were performed on.The average recoveries from spiked samples were 89%～101% for phenol,83%～93% for 2-chlorophenol,77%～87% for p-methylphenol and 91%～100% for 2,4-dichlorophenol,with the relative standard deviation 1.7%~2.6% for phenol,2.9%~3.7% for 2-chlorophenol,1.8%~3.5% for p-methylphenol and 2.4%~2.9% for 2,4-dichlorophenol.In the same way,drinking water samples were concentrated and measured,the mass concentration of phenol was 0.0011μg·mL-1,whose average recoveries from spiked samples and relative standard deviations were 89%～93%,1.7%~2.8% respectively.The satisfying result showed the proposed method several attributes,such as,simple,less time-and labor-intensive,high sensitivity,accurate,wide linear range and so on.