Yongsoon Chung

Separation and determination of eleven environmental protection agency priority phenols by reversed-phase capillary high-performance liquid chromatography with indirect fluorophotometric detection and solid phase extraction

Separation and determination of the 11 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) priority phenols (POHs) by reversed-phase capillary high-performance liquid chromatography (RPCpHPLC) with indirect fluorophotometric detection was studied. The indirect fluorophotometric reagent was sodium 1-naphthalenesulfonate (SNS) and the mobile phase was acetonitrile solution (MeCN:H2O 20/80–60/40) containing 5 μM SNS at pH 2.2–6.0. The retention behavior of the phenols was elucidated with measuring their capacity factors, k′ s, by changing pH and MeCN percentage of the mobile phase. The maximum excitation and emission wavelength (λex and λem) of SNS (280 and 665 nm) were used to detect the phenols. The detection limit (D.L.)(S/N=3) was determined in the optimum separation condition of the mixed phenols. Solid-phase extraction (SPE) was accomplished with Amberlite XAD-4 (for the phenols pKa>4.5) and IRA-400 anion-exchange resin (for the phenols pKa<4.5). As a result, their good recovery percentages (90–102%) with 20 times pre-concentration factor could be obtained.