Surfactant-Mediated Extraction Technique Using Alkyltrimethylammonium Surfactants: Extraction of Selected Chlorophenols from River Water

Abstract

Presented is a surfactant-mediated extraction procedure that uses an ionic surfactant and corresponding homologues. These surfactants contain the quaternary methylammonium functional group, which absorbs minimally at commonly used ultraviolet (UV)/visible wavelengths. Most surfactant-mediated extraction procedures for high-performance liquid chromatography are limited to applications requiring a detector other than the most commonly used UV/visible detector. Other detectors are necessary because most surfactants used in surfactant-mediated extraction methodologies are nonionic in nature and contain chromophores that strongly absorb in the UV/visible region. The high background created by the injected surfactant-rich aliquot extract makes trace analysis impossible. The utility of the presented procedure is demonstrated through the application of determining selected chlorophenols in river water. Quantitative and qualitative data are readily obtained with this procedure, because of minimal background interference, compared to nonionic surfactant-mediated extractions. Recoveries of greater than 95% and detection limits lower than 62 parts-per-billion for the selected chlorophenols are obtained with this procedure.