Comparison of UV and GC/MS for Determination of Phenol Content in Oil Shale Retorting Wastewater

Abstract

The content of phenol in oil shale retorting wastewater was determined by UV spectrophotometry and GC/MS respectively. The column size of the experiment was HP-5 (25m × 0.32mm), and the mass spectrometry was EI. UV spectrophotometry with high purity water as solvent, and ether was the optimum extraction agent determined by experiment. The contents of phenol in oil shale retorting wastewater were 8.49 mg/L and 10.61 mg/L, respectively determined by UV spectrophotometry and GC/MS. Determination of phenol by GC/MS is more accurate than UV spectrophotometry, that is because when determined phenol by UV spectrophotometry the peak position deviated from 270nm which is the maximum absorption wavelength.