Photochemical Spectrofluorometric Determination of 2,6-Dimethylphenol Based on Monitoring Its Photo-Degradation Intermediate with TiO2 as a Catalyst

Abstract

A novel spectrofluorometric method for the determination of 2,6-dimethylphenol has been developed. It is based on detecting a fluorophore intermediate produced in the course of 2,6-dimethylphenol photo-degradation with TiO2 as a cata-lyst. A quartz glass reactor containing the required amount of analyte, buffer and TiO2 is irradiated with UV light (<380 nm). The formed intermediate is detectable with fluorescence and UV absorption. What is more, the fluorescence inten-sity of the intermediate is dramatically enhanced when extracted into the CHCl3 phase. A linear calibration graph was obtained over a 2,6-dimethylphenol concentration ranging from 0.002 µg ml–1 to 0.1 µg ml–1 with a detection limit of 0.0008 µg ml–1. Other phenolic compounds as well as those common inorganic ions do not interfere. The kinetics of the photo-degradation reaction, which followed a successive first-order reaction kinetic model, were studied using an error-compensated algorithm.