Abstract: Objective To establish a headspace gas chromatography method for the determination of methanol,isopropyl alcohol,secondary butanol,isobutanol,n-butanol and isoamyl alcohol in industrial wastewater,surface water and drinking water. Methods The factors affecting the measurement,such as equilibrium temperature and equilibrium time,were discussed to determine the best detection conditions. Six alcohols were separated by headspace extraction,separated by DB-WAXetr capillary column,determined by hydrogen flame ionization detector,qualitative analysis was performed by retention time and quantitative analysis by external standard method. Results The linear range of the six compounds were 0-8.10 μg/mL,and the correlation coefficients were 0.999 3-0.999 9.The detection limits were 0.096 2-0.156 0 μg/mL.The accuracy and precision experiments were carried out with actual samples as the matrix,the accuracy ranged from 97.0% to 100.9%,intra-batch precision ranged from 0.72% to 3.80% and inter-batch precision ranged from 0.81% to 2.30%. Conclusion The method is simple,sensitive and accurate,and can accurately determine the contents of methanol,isopropyl alcohol,secondary butanol,isobutanol,n-butanol and isoamyl alcohol in industrial wastewater,surface water and drinking water.

Key words: Headspace gas chromatography, Alcohol compounds, Water