A fundamental studies were made on chemical changes of phenol during chlorination of water by means of electron capture detector-gas liquid chromatography and the following results wereobtained. In the water chlorinated at pH 7.0, phenol was easily chlorinated by a substitution mechanism to give chlorophenols. The number of substituted hydrogen atoms increased with increasing concentration of HClO, and the concentration of 2, 4, 6-trichlorophenol (I) formed in water reached a maximum level within 30 min. Then the chlorine in para-position of I was hydrolyzed off and subsequently oxidized with HClO, if present at a high concentration, to form 2, 6-dichloro-1, 4-benzoquinone, which was not stable in the chlorinated water at pH 7.0. In an alkaline solution at pH 9.0, phenol was chlorinated with ClO
- to form chlorophenols which were somewhat stable in this water. Chlorination of phenol was hardly influenced by the presence of alkaline metal ions, alkaline earth metal ions, Zn
2+, Al
3+, Fe
3+, Cl
-, CO
2-3, NO
-3, PO
2-4, and SO
2-4 in less than 5 ppm, but suppressed by Fe
2+, Sn
2+, NO
-2, and S
2O
2-3.
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