A simple high-throughput headspace gas chromatographic method for the determination of dissolved oxygen in aqueous samples.

This paper reports on a headspace gas chromatographic method (HS-GC) for the accurate determination of dissolved oxygen (DO) in domestic and industrial wastewater. It was based on GC measurement of oxygen in the headspace gas that is released from the dissolved oxygen in a liquid sample in a closed vial. The results show that the relative standard deviation of the method in quintuplicate testing was < 2.0% and the relative differences of results were less than 4.0% for the real river water samples when compared with the widely used reference method (the electrode method); The linear range of the method is about 0-9.0 mg/L with the limit of detection of 0.30 mg/L. The present method is simple in both sample preparation and method calibration. It is particularly efficient in the batch testing mode. Overall, the method is more reliable than the current reference method when used with samples from a wide range of sources.