Survey Analysis of Phenolic Compounds in Industrial Effluents by Gas Chromatography—Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

Analyzing industrial effluents for phenolic compounds involves a number of problems both in the separation of these compounds from the aqueous medium and in the chromatography of the extracted compounds. Use of a continuous liquid-liquid extractor improved the recovery of phenolic compounds from those effluents that formed intractable emulsions during liquid-liquid extraction by shake-out. Tenax GC and SP-124O DA proved to be the best general-purpose gas chromatographic column packings for a broad range of phenolic compounds. Derivatization procedures using diazomethane and pentafluorobenzyl bromide were found to be successful only under rigorously controlled conditions. For survey work, it appears that derivatization is of questionable value for initial qualitative analysis, because is many cases, the character of the matrix is not known.

Analysis of pulp mill effluent contaminants in water, sediment, and fish muscle— chlorophenols and related compounds

“…This range of properties presents a challenge in finding successful trace analysis protocols. During the last 15 years efforts have been directed towards the identification and quantification of these compounds (Buisson et al, 1984;Coutts et al, 1979;Eklund et al, 1978; July/August 1992 Fogelqvist et al, 1980;Lee et al, 1989;Lee et al, 1984b;Lee et al, 1989;Lehtonen et al, 1986;McKaghe, 1981;Mousa and Whitlock, 1979;Rogers et al, 1988;Rogers et al, 1989;Sha and Duffield, 1984;Shackelford and Webb, 1979;Stalling et al, 1979;Starck et al, 1985;Talka, 1983;Tschochner et al, 1989;and Voss et al, 1981). Several extraction and derivatization procedures, and diverse chromatographic techniques, have been used for the detection of these compounds at trace level.…”