Evaluation of Steam Distillation-Extraction Procedure for the Recovery of Phenols in Water

The quantitative performance of steam distillation extraction for the isolation of nine priority pollutant phenols from water was studied, and the recoveries compared with those of the direct extraction with dichloromethane and the two step extraction using tetrabutylamonium as ion-pair reagent. For a concentration of 1 mg 1=1 using acidification, strong salting of the water sample and a distillation time of 1.5 h. the recoveries are similar to those obtained with extraction in acidic medium with dichloromethane.Compounds of high polarity with strong interactions with water by hydrogen bonds, as p-nitrophenol, are not extracted by stream distillatio-extraction method.