Fluorimetric Determination of Dichloroacetamide by RPLC with Postcolumn Detection

An RPLC-postcolumn detection method has been developed for the fluorimetric determination of dichloroacetamide (DCAD) in water. After ammonia and DCAD were separated on a $C_{18}$ nonpolar stationary phase with 2.5% methanol-0.02 M phosphate buffer at pH 3, the column eluant was reacted with post column reagents, o-phthaldialdehyde (OPA) and sulfite ion at pH 11.5, to produce a highly fluorescent isoindole fluorophore, which was measured with a fluorescence detector ( ${\lambda}_{ex}$ = 363 nm, ${\lambda}_{em}$ = 425 nm). With the optimized conditions for RPLC and the postcolumn derivatization, the calibration curve was found to be linear in the concentration ranges of 0.5 and 20 ${\mu}$M for DCAD, and the detection limit for DCAD was 0.18 ${\mu}$M (23${\mu}$g/L). This corresponded to 18 pmol per 100 ${\mu}$L injection volume for a signal-to-noise ratio of 3, and the repeatability and reproducibility of this method were 1.0% and 2.5% for five replicate analyzes of 2 ${\mu}$M DCAD, respectively. The degradation yields DCAD to ammonia were 94 and 99%, and the percent recoveries of DCAD from 4 and 6 ${\mu}$M DCAD-spiked tap water were shown mean more than 97%.