PYROLYSIS GC/MS IDENTIFICATION OF HALOGENATED FURANDIONES AND OTHER PRODUCTS FROM CHLORINATED AQUEOUS HUMIC SOLUTIONS

Chlorination of drinking water often leads to undesirable byproducts. Little is known about the hydrophilic chlorinated fragments and the high molecular products. For the investigations presented here, solutions of fulvic acids were chlorinated which had been isolated from a brown water lake and from a groundwater rich in DOC. The fulvic acid-like part of the products was reisolated using XAD-2 resin. Both the original fulvic acid and the chlorinated product were analyzed by pyrolysis in combination with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. A number of compounds was identified including furandiones and pyrandiones. However, it remains unclear whether the furanones and pyranones were already present in the chlorinated samples or whether these were formed during pyrolysis by elimination of water from dicarboxylic acids.