If you want to dtermine total phenolics then go for UV-VIS spectrophotometer and if you want to determine individual phenolics then determine with HPLC.
Gudluck :)
First go for wavelength scan, qualitative with uv and hplc. uv itself is not enough. all the best go ahead.
The following reference could be useful:
"A modified spectrophotometric method for the determination of trace amounts of phenol in water"
try this method.
http://www.dionex.com/en-us/webdocs/61920-AN191_HPLC_Phenols_Water_30Apr08_LPN1949_02.pdf
If you want to dtermine total phenolics then go for UV-VIS spectrophotometer and if you want to determine individual phenolics then determine with HPLC.
Gudluck :)
I agree with Robin Joshi. If you have in the object only one phenol or several but should determine the sum of then, UV method is simpler an better. If you need to to determine phenols separately, separate prior by HPLC and UV-detector will help to determine every phenols. If need to identify the phenols use, please, MS detector.
The goal of chromatography to separate, the goal of UV- to determine.
I would like to reinforce what Sergei said: HPLC is a separation technique. UV/Vis spectroscopy is a detection technique.
So even if you decide to use HPLC, you are still using UV/Vis to detect and determine the concentration.
Therefore, unless you have multiple phenolic compounds with very similar UV/Vis characteristics and you only want to determine the concentration of one of them (in which case you would want to use HPLC to separate them first, as Robin suggested), UV/Vis is the quickest and easiest thing to do. You can get better results for the UV/Vis determination using a specific chromogenic reaction as noted in paper listed by Mohammadali.
Good luck!
In water can be other impurities besides phenols.
Chemical methods are the best methods.
There are official procedures for this determination.
The question is to determine "trace" amount of phenol in water. The spectrophotometric alone cannot distinquish between the target and interference having the same absorbance spectra or close to it. If you do not substract blank matrix that has similar interference as the sample, most likely you will over estimate or would not have enough sensitivity becuase the analyte with small concentration is buried in the larger quantitity of interference. So, if you want selectivity and sensitivity, go for HPLC to get selectivity and may get enogh sensitity if you do SPE for sample prep to concentrate the analytes in the sample.
This must be the simplest task of all time, but I agree with Narong, you have to you have to define the needed LOD first for your applications. You should be able to achieve an LOD of about 1-100 ug/L, and even lower with sample prep (SPE, LLE).
I would choose HPLC. You're going to get a higher sensitivity. It depends on how low you need to go and whether you have he instrument readily available.
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