Headspace Gas Chromatographic Method for the Determination of Hydrogen Peroxide Residues in Bleaching Effluent

A simple, rapid, accurate, and practical headspace gas chromatographic method is proposed for the determination of hydrogen peroxide residues in bleaching effluent. This method is based on the reaction of hydrogen peroxide with ceric sulfate, under acidic conditions, where hydrogen peroxide is converted to oxygen, which is then measured using headspace gas chromatography (HS-GC) coupled with a thermal conductivity detector (TCD). The results show that a complete conversion of hydrogen peroxide to oxygen can be achieved within 3 min at a temperature of 70 degrees C and a H2SO4 concentration of 0.2 M. Under optimized conditions, the method has an excellent measurement precision (relative standard deviation = 0.78%) and good recovery (100.2 +/- 2.6%). Meanwhile, the present method does not require the use of organic reagents.