ANALYSIS OF PHENOLIC-COMPOUNDS IN EFFLUENT BY SOLID-PHASE EXTRACTION AND GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY MASS-SPECTROMETRY WITH DIRECT ON-COLUMN BENZYLATION - SENSITIVE NEGATIVE-ION CHEMICAL-IONIZATION GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY MASS-SPECTROMETRY DETECTION OF PHENYL BENZYL ETHERS

A procedure for the extraction of eight phenolic compounds in effluent from various tertiary sewerage treatment plants in the Sydney area us ing a non-ionic polystyrene-divinylbenzene polymeric sorbent is descri bed. Good recoveries were obtained for these phenols which differ wide ly in polarity. The performance of this new sorbent is superior to tha t of graphitised carbon black. The determination of the phenols was ca rried out by direct on-column derivatisation in GC with a recently dev eloped reagent, 5-bis(trifluoromethyl)benzyldimethylphenylammonium flu oride (BTBDMAF). Benzyl derivatives of phenols allow very sensitive de tection of phenols by GC-MS in the negative ion CI mode at ppt levels.