ONLINE SAMPLE HANDLING OF WATER-SOLUBLE ORGANIC POLLUTANTS IN AQUEOUS SAMPLES USING POROUS GRAPHITIC CARBON

An on-line technique coupling preconcentration via a precolumn packed with porous graphitic carbon (PGC) and liquid chromatography with a PGC analytical column was investigated and found to be a very simple and efficient system for the trace-level determination of some very polar and water-soluble organic pollutants (characterized by logarithms of their water-octanol partition coefficients below 1) from environmental waters. As these analytes are much more retained by PGC than they are by C-18 silica, preconcentration on a PGC precolumn cannot be coupled on-line with the widely used and more efficient C-18 silica analytical columns, but with a PGC analytical column. Applications are presented for the trace-level determination of some organic compounds included in the EEC environmental priority pollutant list such as 2-chloro-4-aminophenol, chloroanilines, aminophenols and cyanuric acid. The influence of the sample matrix was investigated with drinking and river water samples.