Comparison of methods for determination of volatile organic compounds in drinking water.

https://pure.tue.nl/ws/files/1522484/617545.pdf

Trace level analysis of micropollutants in aqueous samples using gas chromatography with on-line sample enrichment and large volume injection

An analytical method is described that can detect the major alkyl ether compounds that are used as gasoline oxygenates (methyl tert-butyl ether, MTBE; ethyl tert-butyl ether, ETBE; and tert-amyl methyl ether, TAME) and their most characteristic degradation products (tert-butyl alcohol, TBA; tert-butyl formate, TBF; and tert-amyl alcohol, TAA) in water at sub-ppb concentrations. The new method involves gas chromatography (GC) with direct aqueous injec tion (DAI) onto a polar column via a splitless injector, coupled with detection by mass spectrometry (MS). DAI-GC/MS gives excellent agreement with conventional purge-and-trap methods for MTBE over a wide range of environmentally relevant concentrations. The new method can also give simultaneous identification of polar compounds that might occur as degradation products of gasoline oxygenates, such as TBA, TBF, TAA, methyl acetate, and acetone. When the method was applied to effluent from a column microcosm prepared with core material from an urban site in New...

Method for determination of methyl tert-butyl ether and its degradation products in water

The protection of drinking water quality is one of the most important mandates of government environment departments. During the past 2 decades, more and more attention has been spent on the trace organic chemical pollutants that may be present in potable water. Consequently, the detection, identification, and quantitation of trace organics in drinking water has been the subject of considerable analytical development work. Sophisticated methods based on gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) are now in routine use that can detect organics at parts per trillion concentrations. For some analytes, parts per quadrillion detection limits have been reported. Although these capabilities are largely due to the maturity of GC-MS as an analytical technique, recent developments in solid-phase extraction (SPE) and other reduced-solvent or even solvent-free extraction and concentration methods are leading the way to even greater analytical performance. Other methods based on liquid chromatography-mass s...

Analysis of Drinking Water for Trace Organics

Determination of trihalomethanes and some chlorinated solvents in drinking water by headspace technique with capillary column gas-chromatography

The disinfection of drinking water with chlorine produces carcinogenic by-products called trihalomethanes or (THM's). These compounds are formed when the chlorine reacts with the organic matter in the raw water. The four major THM's are chloroform, bromodichloromethane, dibromochromethane, and bromoform. Direct aqueous injection is used for the rapid screening THM's and other volatile organic compounds (VOC's) in water by direct on column injection of the water sample in to wide bore capillary columns, to which is attached an electron capture detector.

Duncan Carmichael

Papers

Screening of trihalomethanes by direct aqueous injection using electron capture detection