METHOD FOR RAPID SCREENING OF CHLOROPHENOLS USING A REDUCED CALIBRATION SET OF UV SPECTRA AND MULTIVARIATE CALIBRATION TECHNIQUES

A method for the rapid screening of five chlorophenols in the ppm conc entration range (2-chlorophenol, 2,4-dichlorophenol, 2,4,6-trichloroph enol, 4-chloro-m-cresol, and pentachlorophenol) is described. It is ba sed on the use of first derivative UV spectrophotometry with a reduced calibration set constituted by eleven standard solutions, selected ac cording to a four level fractional factorial experimental design, and in the use of multivariate calibration: techniques (partial least squa res and artificial neural networks) as calibration models. This method ology allows the development of calibration models with good predictio n ability for the rapid simultaneous analysis of the five chlorophenol s.