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 2 μL. The achieved detection limits were between 1 and 2 μg/L and the linear dynamic range was up to 50 μg/L for all studied phenols. The precision and uncertainty were satisfactory. The analysis time per sample was 10 min. The proposed procedure has been proved useful for treated waters.