Procedural cleanup technique for determination of phthalate esters in an aquatic environment

The use of cleanup adsorption procedure and gas liquid chromatography provides the basis for selective determination of phthalate esters plasticizers in river waters. Of the several solvents tried for extraction, dichloromethane gave the best result. Free fatty acids were separated from neutral organic compounds by alkali extraction. Ethyl acetate was used as eluting solvent for selective elution of phthalate esters from alumina liquid chromatographic column after preliminary washing with n‐hexane. The method was tested on water samples from rivers that receive effluents from industries that use phthalate esters. The rivers are grossly, polluted as several phthalate esters, i.e. dimethyl (DMP), diethyl (DEP) and di‐n‐butyl (DBP) were found present at 9.80 ± 1.61 — 820.10 ± 6.78 mg L‐1. A study on uncontaminated water was done to establish blank levels.