Adam Hill

Prof. Henderson

CHEM 425

Development of an LC/MS Method for Trace-Level Detection of Optical Brighteners in Well Water

Contamination of rural wells by human waste is a significant concern to environmental scientists. It has been suggested that the optical brighteners commonly found in laundry detergent can be used to selectively detect domestic waste. A method is being developed to find ultratrace levels of the brighteners DSBP and DAS1 via solid phase extraction and LC/MS. After considering a variety of compounds, dinonylnaphthalene sulfonic acid was selected as an internal standard due to its positive chromatographic properties and slow breakdown. Standards solutions of the three compounds were used to produce a calibration curve for quantification of brightener concentrations.