Environmental monitoring of phenolic pollutants in water 5 by cloud point extraction prior to micellar 6 electrokinetic chromatography

PATRICIA WANDA STEGE; LORENA L. SOMBRA; GERMÁN ALEJANDRO MESSINA; LUIS DANTE MARTINEZ; MARIA F. SILVA

ANALYTICAL AND BIOANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY

SPRINGER HEIDELBERG

Año: 2009 vol. 394 p. 567 - 573

1618-2642

Abstract Many aromatic compounds can be found in theenvironment as a result of anthropogenic activities andsome of them are highly toxic. The need to determine lowconcentrations of pollutants requires analytical methodswith high sensitivity, selectivity, and resolution for applicationto soil, sediment, water, and other environmentalsamples. Complex sample preparation involving analyteisolation and enrichment is generally necessary before thefinal analysis. The present paper outlines a novel, simple,low-cost, and environmentally friendly method for thesimultaneous determination of p-nitrophenol (PNP), paminophenol(PAP), and hydroquinone (HQ) by micellarelectrokinetic capillary chromatography after preconcentrationby cloud point extraction. Enrichment factors of 180 to200 were achieved. The limits of detection of the analytesfor the preconcentration of 50-ml sample volume were0.10 μg L−1 for PNP, 0.20 μg L−1 for PAP, and 0.16 μg L−1for HQ. The optimized procedure was applied to thedetermination of phenolic pollutants in natural waters fromSan Luis, Argentina.