TRACE ENRICHMENT OF PHENOLS BY ONLINE SOLID-PHASE EXTRACTION AND GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHIC DETERMINATION

An on-line gas chromatographic pretreatment module for the preconcentr ation/determination of phenols in waters is proposed. A solid-phase ex traction system using different sorbents packed in a minicolumn is cou pled on-line with a gas chromatograph equipped with flame ionization d etection (FID). The XAD-2 sorbent selected provides detection limits f rom 0.3 to 2 mu g/l for 100 ml of water at an acid pH. The relative st andard deviations for eleven analyses of samples containing 10 mu g/l phenols were 2.3-4.5%. The proposed method can be used for the routine analysis of natural and drinking waters containing phenols at trace l evels.