Gas chromatographic detection of tris(2-chloroethyl) and tris(2-butoxyethyl)phosphate in groundwater by large-sample-volume injection

A capillary gas chromatograph equipped with a flame photometric detector (GC-FPD) for splitless injection of large sample volume was developed. The GC-FPD selectively diverted dichloromethane from the analytical column through a solvent diversion column and quantitatively retained tri(2-chloroethyl)phosphate (TCEP) and tris(2-butoxyethyl)phosphate (TBXP) on a cold-trap column in front of the analytical column. The optimum conditions for 100 μL injections of TCEP and TBXP in dichloromethane at concentrations from 1 to 100 ng/mL were investigated. With the GC-FPD, relative standard deviations of the peak area and the retention time of the triesters injected at 10 ng/mL were less than 7.0 and 0.05%, respectively