Liquid chromatographic determination of nitroaromatics in water following solid phase extraction,pre-column reduction and derivatization

Summary A selective and sensitive method for determination of nitroaromatics is described. The analytes were reduced to corresponding primary amines with iron powder and then derivatized with fluram in citrate buffer to form pyrrolinones. The highly fluorescent pyrrolinones were isolated and preconcentrated by octadecylsilane solid phase extraction cartridge followed by reversed-phase, high-performance liquid chromatographic analysis. Detection was at 395–495 nm. Various aspects such as the reduction process, derivatization, solid phase extraction and chromatographic separation were optimized. Analysis time was relatively short due to a special design for successive reduction and preconcentration. Limits of detection for 3-nitrophenol, nitrobenzene, 4 and 2-nitrotoluene were less than 60, 12, 60 and 280 ng L^–1 respectively.