Characterization of dyes and other pollutants in the effluent of a textile company by LC/NMR and LC/MS

LC/NMR and LC/MS (the latter technique in the MSn mode) were used to characterize the organic constituents of industrial wastewater with emphasis on polar, nonvolatile compounds. In the effluent of a textile company, various compounds such as anthraquinone-type dyes and their byproducts, a fluorescent brightener, a byproduct from polyester production, and auxiliaries such as anionic and nonionic surfactants and their degradation products were identified. It is shown that the combined use of both hyphenated techniques provides complementary structural information. If applied under comparable chromatographic conditions, they are well-suited for the nontarget analysis.