High-performance liquid chromatographic analysis of chlorophenols in cardboard food containers and related materials

A technique has been developed for the extraction of a clean concentrate of chlorophenols from cardboard food containers and adhesives of the type used in their manufacture. A simple, reversed-phase, isocratic high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) system employing an optimised mobile phase permitted the separation of nineteen different phenols. The use of a carefully selected internal standard permitted the estimation of (sub) parts per million levels of pentachlorophenol, 2,3,4,6-tetrachlorophenol and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol in several samples of adhesives and various sections of cardboard food containers. Pentachlorophenol (50 ng) and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol (20 ng) gave significant HPLC peaks, readily permitting their detection in parts per billion from 100-g samples.