Determination of arylamine compounds in waste water using solid-phase extraction and reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography

A simple, rapid and sensitive method for determining 10 arylamine compounds in wastewater sample using solid-phase extraction (SPE) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with UV detection is developed. An SPE procedure is described for extracting and preconcentrating the arylamines on Sep-Pak C18 cartridges with methanol as solvent. A mobile phase gradient of acetonitrile-water was used for the separation and determination of the arylamines. The detection limits of the compounds were in the range of 0.1–1.5 μg/L. Recoveries were 84–107% for 10 arylamines at concentration levels of 20μg/L with relative standard deviations of less than 8% (n = 4).