Use of the hyper-crosslinked polystyrene sorbents “Styrosorb” for solid phase extraction of phenols from water

The analytical HPLC procedure for the quantitation of trace amounts of phenol and chlorophenols in aqueous media has been supplemented with the on-line preconcentration of phenols in a sorption cartridge packed with microporous hyper-crosslinked polystyrene. The cartridge is coupled in succession with a reversed-phase analytical column, which is operated isocratically in an aqueous acetonitrile eluent (1:1, v/v). Phenol concentrations down to 0.5 μg/l can be detected using a simple 254 nm UV detector. Biporous hyper-crosslinked polystyrene-type sorbents were shown to effectively purify about 100 bed volumes of water from phenol under neutral or acidic conditions and linear flow rates up to 4 cm/min, which could be of great practical importance. Rapid and quantitative elution of sorbates from the hyper-crosslinked polystyrene materials is facilitated by the unique ability of the latter to additionally swell with organic or aqueous-organic eluents applied.