ON-SITE IDENTIFICATION OF TRACE CONCENTRATIONS OF PHENOLS AND CRESOLSIN CONTAMINATED LAND LEACHATES USING PLANAR CHROMATOGRAPHY

Recent EC legislation regulating the re-use of former industrial sites and waste tips has resulted in great emphasis on preliminary field te sting as a prelude to assessment and sampling strategies for later in- house analysis. The rective on potable water [1] allows a maximum conc entration for total phenols of 0.5 mu g per litre. On-site testing for total phenols has been limited mainly to the use of simple colorimetr ic methods, usually based on the well-known 4-aminoantipyrene reaction . Many phenols substituted in the 4 position do not react with this re agent. Development of a test which will identify total phenols and ind icate the species present, perhaps with quantification, is thus desira ble. Planar chromatography has been used to separate and identify seve ral commonly found phenols following derivatization as azo dyes and ex traction into a chlorinated solvent. The latter could be used as an ef fective concentration technique for the determination of phenols at th e sub parts per million level. The long-term stability of the dyes ena bles later in-house quantification to be easily accomplished using a s canner.