Study of the Degraded Products of N-Chloroserine in Chlorinated Waters Using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography

The most widely used method for identification of decomposed products of N-chloroamino acids is the qualitative 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine method. However, this method has serious drawbacks. For this reason, a new method based on high-perfomance liquid chromatography that permits the identification and quantification of the reaction products is proposed. Included in this study is the optimization of the method (linearity, repeatability, reproducibility, and recovery) and its application to N-chloroserine, the use of which can be easily extended to other amino acids (the L-serine being a simple structure amino acid that has proved to be plentiful in both drinking and residual water). To study the degradation products of N-chloroserine, an ion-exchange capillary column and detection by refractive index coupled with ultraviolet detection at 210 nm have been used. The compounds determined are glycolaldehyde and β-hydroxypyruvic acid. This identification is carried out in different mediums because the predominance of one product or another depends on the pH value. Finally, it is shown that the determined products are coherent with the reaction mechanism proposed for the process.