SEDL / STP / STP686-EB / STP35019S

Determination of Hexachloroacetone and Hexafluoroacetone in Industrial Wastewaters

Smith, JS
Research group leader, research chemist, and research chemist, Corporate Research Center, Allied Chemical Corporation, Morristown, N.J.

Burkitt, DT
Research group leader, research chemist, and research chemist, Corporate Research Center, Allied Chemical Corporation, Morristown, N.J.

Hanrahan, JM
Research group leader, research chemist, and research chemist, Corporate Research Center, Allied Chemical Corporation, Morristown, N.J.

Pages: 5    Published: Jan 1979

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Abstract

Recently, there has been a great deal of interest shown in the identification and quantitation of halogenated organic pollutants in water. Federal Water Quality Acts of 1972 and 1977 and the Environmental Protection Agency's list of priority pollutants have spurred industrial wastewater analysis. Even though hexafluoroacetone is no longer manufactured in the United States, we were interested in determining if any hexafluoroacetone or its precursors have contaminated wastewater at the low parts per billion (ppb) levels from previous manufacturing sites. Hexafluoroacetone is a toxic compound that is water soluble.

We analyzed for hexafluoroacetone by converting it to fluoroform by treatment of the aqueous sample matrix with base; a procedure derived from an infrared method described by Baker and Carlson [I]². Headspace analysis by gas chroma tography was used to detect and quantitate the fluoroform. The method has a detection limit of 10 ppb.