Determination of bromate and chlorinated haloacetic acids in bottled drinking water with chromatographic methods

Disinfection by-products of interest such as bromate, chlorate and chlorinated haloacetic acids in 10 representative brands of bottled drinking water were investigated with ion chromatography. With the developed method, the detection limits of the disinfection by-products were in sub-μg l−1 level. It was observed that bromate, chlorate and dichloroacetic acid could be detected in some water samples. In the bottled natural water, the concentrations for the three compounds were 0.1, 0.9 and 0.6 μg l−1, respectively. The total concentration of disinfection by-products in the natural water sample was the highest among all the bottled drinking waters. The concentrations for the sum of disinfection by-products in the four types of bottled drinking water investigated were natural water > mineral water > spring water > purified water. The generation of disinfection by-products was much influenced by the original components and process procedure of the source water. The concentrations of bromate and chlorate in the bottled water samples hardly degraded with the increasing storage time. For dichloroacetic acid, with the prolonging of storage time, the concentration was much decreased.