Study of the behaviour of various phenolic compounds in the 4-aminoantipyrine and ultraviolet-ratio spectrophotometric methods without and with distillation

It is customary in industrial analysis in the determination of phenols by the 4-aminoantipyrine (4-AAP) and ultraviolet-ratio spectrophotometric methods to report the total of phenolic compounds as phenol. A study was therefore made of the behaviour of 36 representative phenolic compounds in the 4-AAP and UV-ratio methods, with and without distillation, to ascertain the apparent recoveries relative to that for phenol. The Fisher phenol analyser was used for the UV-ratio method, which depends upon the bathochromic shift (from about 270 to about 290 nm) usually obtained when the solution of the phenol is made alkaline. The apparent recoveries by the 4-AAP method both with and without distillation varied from 0 to 100%. The apparent recoveries by the UV-ratio method without distillation varied from 0 to 148%, and those with distillation varied from 0 to 110%. Sixteen of the compounds tested without distillation gave less than 10% recovery by the 4-AAP method and eleven gave less than 10% recovery by the UV-ratio method. The results after distillation indicated that several of the compounds did not distil completely.     

A host-guest optical sensor for aliphatic amines based on lipophilic cyclodextrin

A host-guest optical sensor for the determination of aliphatic amines as exemplified by octylamine is proposed. It is based on the reversible fluorescence enhancement of heptakis(2,6-di-O-isobutyl)-β-cyclodextrin(DOB-β-CD) hosting tetraphenylporphyrin (TPP) immobilized in poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) membrane by aliphatic amine extracted from aqueous phase into membrane phase. The optimum membrane contained 1.15 wt % TPP, 6.15 wt % DOB-β-CD as sensing reagent and other membrane materials. The fluorescence enhancement of the membrane resulted from the formation of a stable three-component complex among DOB-β-CD, TPP, and aliphatic amines. With the optimum conditions described, the fluorescence response of the sensor to octylamine shows a good correlation with the theoretically derived equation in the range 1.0 × 10^–6 to 8.0 × 10^–4 mol/L. The response characteristics including reversibility, response time, reproducibility and lifetime and selectivity of this optical device are also discussed in detail. This sensor has also been applied for the determination of octylamine in water samples containing interferents with satisfactory recovery. Received: 21 November 1999 / Revised: 10 January 2000 / Accepted: 15 January 2000