Determination of phenol and its derivatives in wastewater by capillary electrophoresis

A simple and reliable capillary electrophoresis method was developed for the analysis of phenol, 3-aminophenol, 3-nitrophenol and 4-cyanophenol. The capillary electrophoresis was carried out using a fused silica capillary (60 cm. x 75 mum I.D.) and phosphate buffer (10 mM, pH 7.0) as the background electrolyte. The applied voltage was 18 kV with 20 points per second as the data collection. The detection was carried out at 214 nm for all phenols. The values of retention factors (k) ranged from 1.10 to 2.31, separation factors from 1.14 to 2.10 and resolution factors (Rs) from 4.20 to 20.20. The detection range was 0.1 to 1.0 mug/L. The method was developed to determine these phenols in wastewater samples.