The procedures described in this application note meet the requirements for sample extraction as determined by U.S. EPA Method 3545. This method is applicable to the extraction of water-insoluble or slightly water-soluble volatile and semivolatile compounds in preparation for gas chromatographic or GC/MS measurement. This method is applicable to soils, clays, wastes, and sediments containing 250–12,500 μg/kg of BNA compounds.

Phenolic compounds are of particular environmental importance due to their relatively high toxicity at low levels and their presence in environmental waters and organic matter, following degradation of a range of industrial products such as pesticides and herbicides, as well as naturally occurring humic substances and tannins. We demonstrate analysis optimization by variation of column chemistry, and the viability of reducing stationary phase particle size to significantly increase analysis speed, while maintaining separation parameters and increasing sensitivity.

To demonstrate the advantages of using the Thermo Scientific™ Hypersil GOLD™ VANQUISH PFP, 1.9 µm column and Thermo Scientific™ Vanquish™ UHPLC system, for the analysis of 22 positional isomers.

The application provides a complete analytical workflow for the GC-MS analysis of phenolic compounds in water according to the EPA 528 guideline. The method includes all the steps required to collect, prepare and analyze samples. The extraction and purification of the analytes have been achieved with the Thermo Scientific Dionex AutoTrace 280 SPE for complete unattended operations.

The Thermo Scientific UltiMate 3000 HPLC system is applied for the analysis of resveratrol in red wine. The separation is performed on a Thermo Scientific Acclaim 120 C18 column, with UV detection at 310 nm.