Rapid Gas-Chromatographic Determination of Phenol and Cresols in Water by Extractive Freezing-Out

A rapid procedure for the determination of phenol and cresol isomers in drinking, sea, and polluted domestic wastewater is developed based on a single-stage extraction of analytes by extractive freezing-out under sample centrifugation conditions. In combination with gas chromatography, the procedure provides the minimum detection limits for each of phenols in 10 mL of water at a level of 0.0005 µg/mL. The duration of sample preparation does not exceed 30 min; the consumption of the ethoxyethane extractant is 1.4 mL. In comparison with liquid–liquid and solid-phase extraction traditionally used at the stage of sample preparation, the proposed procedure is simpler and more environmentally friendly. The stages of filtering samples and dehydrating extracts are excluded; the amount of chemical glassware is minimized.