Isolation and analysis of lignin-derived phenols in aquatic humic substances: improvements on the procedures

Procedures for the extraction of aquatic humic substances and analysis of their lignin-derived phenols were assessed and altered to simplify and shorten XAD-8 resin cleaning, reduce losses due to sorption, and optimize oxidative release of phenols without increasing their transformation. The revised cleaning procedures require 5 rather than 120 h and sorptive losses of humic acids were reduced 7%. Coefficients of variation for individual phenols in the final method ranged from 1 to 11%. The method was used to analyze lignin-derived phenols in White Clay Creek watershed humics, Suwannee River humics (IHSS), and Lake Washington sediments.