Determination of Volatile Phenol and Cyanide by Continuous Flow Injection Method in Drinking Water with Ascorbic Acid Preserved

Objective To improve the preservation method for water samples containing volatile phenol and cyanide based on Standard examination method for drinking water-Collection and preservation of water samples(GB/T 5750.2-2006).

Methods Volatile phenol and cyanide in water samples are determined by adopting a continuous flow injection system with ascorbic acid (2.0 g/L) pretreatment to remove the residual chlorine.

Results After performing the pretreatment on water samples, the spike recovery range for volatile phenol and cyanide was 93.6%-105.0%, with a relative standard deviation from 2.24% to 3.34%; the detection limit of volatile phenol was 0.000 8 mg/L and that of cyanide was 0.001 mg/L. Compared with the national standard method, the result determined by this method had no statistical difference after student's t-test (t=1.72, P>0.05).

Conclusion Replacing sodium arsenite with ascorbic acid for the removal of residual chlorine in water samples does not affect the result for volatile phenol and cyanide determination and could, therefore, be applied for daily monitoring of volatile phenol and cyanide.