Dear Sir. Concerning your issue about the quantitative analysis of phenol in water. Phenolic compounds exist widely in the influents and effluents of sewage treatment plants (STPs) and most are un-regulated. In this study, a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method for the simultaneous analysis of 50 phenolic compounds in wastewater was developed. Deconvolution technology was used to identify contaminants that are covered by co-extracted materials. A mass spectral library containing all 50 silylated phenolic compounds was first established and used for deconvolution. Twelve typical phenolic compounds were selected to optimize the sample preparation procedures. Solid-phase extraction using a C18 cartridge coupled with an HLB cartridge was used for pre-concentration and dichloromethane was used for elution. The solutes were derivatized and analyzed by GC-MS. The blank and matrix spike recoveries ranged from 57.46% to 136.4% and 47.87% to 114.8%, respectively. Method detection limits ranged from 3.64 to 97.64 ng L−1. The relative standard deviations of all the recovery experiments were lower than 13.6%. The instrument limits of quantification ranged from 0.7 to 87.7 pg. I think the following below links and the attached file may help you in your analysis:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11434-010-4266-1

http://www.chromatographyonline.com/determination-phenols-drinking-water-solid-phase-extraction-and-gc-ms

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/jssc.201100398

https://www.o2si.com/docs/epa-method-8041.pdf

Thanks

You could convert the water to methanol and aceton. Both are easily evaporated. In this way you avoid the problems associated with extraction. After bringing up to volume with a suitable solvent you can use direct injection or static headspace. FET headspace without solvent is also possible

Article Application of acetone acetals as water scavengers and deriv...

Do this via headspace sampling with an autoinjector. I'm not sure what temp is optimal but the less you have to manipulate/extract/partition your samples the better your reproducibility.

I don't know if our methods of 40+ years ago might still be of interest with respect to the list provided by Isam Eldin Hussein Elgailani. But here it is:

Determination of urinary monohydric and dihydric phenols by gas chromatography of the acetate and TMS derivatives

V. Fell, C. R. Lee

Journal of Chromatography A 1976, 121(1):41-7

DOI: 10.1016/S0021-9673(00)82296-7

@Robert Hoagland I don't think phenol in water would have enough vapour pressure for headspace analysis but perhaps it could be done by forming a derivative (acetate?) in situ (reaction headspace GC). This technique may be under-used, though it proved very convenient (with an inorganic reagent) for alkylating agents that are difficult to chromatograph.:

DOI: 10.1039/b300721a

Our application scientist has worked with trimethylsilyated phenol in drinking water, I'm not sure whether it will work for your application. I hope the datasheet below helps

https://solutions.shimadzu.co.jp/an/n/en/gcms/jpo215103.pdf?return=https://www.shimadzu.com/an/literature/gcms/jpo215103.html