A direct Capillary Liquid Chromatography with electrochemical detection method for determination of phenols in water samples

A fast and direct method based on the use of Capillary Liquid Chromatography (LC) with electrochemical (EC) detection has been described for phenols pollutants in water samples. Concretely, phenol, o-cresol, 2-chlorophenol and bisphenol A have been selected as target analytes. The combination of Capillary LC with EC detection avoided the necessity of preconcentration steps typically used in environmental analysis. The sample injected volume was 2μL. The achieved detection limits were between 1 and 2μg/L and the linear dynamic range was up to 50μg/L for all studied phenols. The precision and uncertainty were satisfactory. The analysis time per sample was 10min. The proposed procedure has been proved useful for treated waters.