Abstract

A sensitive, accurate and relatively interference-free flow injection analysis (FIA) is proposed here to determine volatile phenol in tannery effluent. The method combinines 4-amino-antipyrine (4-AAP) photometry using potassium ferricyanide [K3Fe(CN)6] as oxidant and 4-AAP as colour developing reagent. The results showed that, under optimal conditions, a good linear curve with high sensitivity and broad linear range was obtained: the peak height was truly linear with the concentration of volatile phenol in the range of 4 x 10-4-4, 4-6 and 6-8mg/l. The detection limit of this method was 3.4 x 10-4mg/l. The relative standard deviation (RSD) was 0.85% (n = 14) by injecting tannery effluent. Satisfactory results were achieved using this method to determine the volatile phenol in tannery effluent with recovery percentages ranging from 94.9 to 99.1%.