Analytical Sciences

Determination of Phenoxyacetic Acids and Chlorophenols in Aqueous Samples by Dynamic Liquid–Liquid–Liquid Microextraction with Ion-Pair Liquid Chromatography

Ming-Kung YEH,* Shu-Ling LIN,** Mei-I LEONG,* Shang-Da HUANG,* and Ming-Ren FUH**

*Department of Chemistry, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan
**Department of Chemistry, Soochow University, Taipei, Taiwan

Dynamic liquid–liquid–liquid microextraction coupled with ion-pair liquid chromatography (IP-LC) and photodiode array detection was developed and used for the extraction and analysis of chlorinated phenoxyacetic acids (CPAs) and chlorophenols (CPs) from water samples. An organic extraction solvent mixture was chosen to simultaneously and effectively extract both CPAs and CPs from aqueous samples. The method detection limit (MDL) ranged from 0.06 to 0.45 μg L⁻¹ with good reproducibility. The relative standard deviations were in the range of 2.6 – 6.5% at lower spiked concentrations and 3.0 – 4.6% at higher concentrations. Good linearity of analytes was achieved in the range of 0.5 – 500 μg L⁻¹. The acceptable relative recoveries (82.9 – 112.4%) for environmental waters revealed the presence of negligible matrix effects in the case of real samples. The applicability of this newly developed method was illustrated by determinations of CPAs and CPs in environmental water samples.

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