SIMULTANEOUS DETERMINATION OF 27 PHENOLS AND HERBICIDES IN WATER BY HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY WITH MULTIELECTRODE ELECTROCHEMICAL DETECTION

A sensitive and simple method for the simultaneous evaluation of pheno l, 26 substituted phenols and herbicides was developed using HPLC and electrochemical detection. After extraction from the samples on solid- phase cartridges, the compounds were separated on a reversed-phase col umn by using a combined gradient of organic modifier and counter-ion. The total analysis time was less than 63 minutes. Identification of th e compounds was based on retention time comparison with authentic stan dards. In addition, further confirmation of peak identities and of the ir purity was determined by comparison of the ratio of the peak's heig ht of each compound across the electrode array, with the similar ratio of the authentic standard. The detection limit was found to be much l ower than that indicated by the European Community: for the least sens itive compound (a herbicide, Linuron) it was less than 0.0005 mu g/l a t signal-to-noise of 3. The method was used to examine the residual le vels of phenylurea herbicides, phenol, chloro- and nitro-phenols in ta p water, mineral water and spring water from different sources.