Abstract: A self-fabricated wall-jet/thin-layer electrochemical detector(ECD) was developed by combining the classical wall-jet and thin-layer ECD, which is coupled to high-performance liquid chromatography for simultaneous determination of five priority pollutants of phenols. The results show that both the response current and the noise increase with the increase of electrode area, thus an appropriate electrode area is important for obtaining a good analytical performance at enhanced signal-to-noise ratio(S/N). By using SHIM-PACK VP-ODS(150 mm×4.6 mm) column, mobile phase of a mixture of methanol and 0.1 mol/L PBS(pH=7.5)(volume ratio is 40∶60), oven temperature: 40 ℃, flow rate:1 mL/min, injection volume:20 μL, detection potential:1.0 V, detection wavelength:220 nm, the limits of detection without preconcentration are all lower than 1.0 μg/L(S/N=3) for p-nitrophenol, phenol, m-cresol, 2,4-dichlorophenol and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol, which are lower than those obtained with a UV detector and a commercial electrochemical detector. The method has been tested using river water samples with satisfactory results.

Key words: high-performance liquid chromatography, amperometric detector, environment priority pollution phenols, signal-to-noise ratio, glassy carbon electrode