Optimisation of analytical conditions for simultaneous determination of phenol and chlorophenols by capillary electrophoresis with indirect laser-induced fluorescence detection

Abstract

This work presented a capillary electrophoresis method with indirect laser-induced fluorescence detection for the simultaneous determination of phenol and four chlorophenol derivatives. The separation was obtained within 20 minutes with a background electrolyte composed of 5 mM borax and 1 mM fluorescein (pH=9.75), 17 kV of applied voltage, and 120 s of hydrostatic injection. At the optimal conditions, the limit of detections for phenolic compounds was in the range of 0.08-0.23 mg/l, and the RSD data of repeatability and reproducibility were less than 8.0% for both migration times and peak areas. This developed method was applied to analyse concentrations of phenolic compounds in surface water and wastewater samples, with the recoveries ranging from 59.4 to 102.5%.