Trace-level determination of aromatic sulfonates in water by on-line ion-pair extraction/ion-pair chromatography and their behavior in the aquatic environment

A new HPLC method for the fully automatic determination of aromatic sulfonates in aqueous samples is presented. The analytical procedure consists of an on-line combination of ion-pair extraction (IPE) and ion-pair chromatography (IPC), both using RP-C18 solid-phase material and a tetrabutylammonium salt as ion pairing reagent. Experimental details and performance data are given. This method is suited for the trace-level determination of a wide variety of benzene, naphthalene, anthraquinone and stilbene sulfonates. Detection limits for surface water using a diode-array detector are in the sub-ppb range. For naphthalene sulfonates a very good selectivity and minimal detectable limits of 0.02 μg/L or even lower can be achieved. So far, this method has been successfully applied to waste water, river water, bank filtrate, and water from different steps of drinking water production. The fate of several aromatic sulfonates has been studied beginning at the effluents of industrial waste water treatment plants and ending after activated carbon filtration in a water works. Napthalene-1,5-disulfonate (NDS, Armstrong acid) and cis-4,4′-dinitrostilbene-2,2′-disulfonate (DNS) appear in the raw water of the investigated water works and therefore have to be termed as relevant to water works. In contrast to other disulfonates NDS is extremely stable to biodegradation and ozonation and it is even desorbed from a highly loaded activated carbon filter.