Special emphasis is placed on new aqueous-phase derivatization agents.
In addition, this method did exhibit the expected sensitivities or low limits of detection needed for analysis of drinking water. Therefore, derivatization with ethylchloroformate was explored, making possible the detection of most alpha-ketoacids, but with very poor sensitivity and less satisfactory limits of detection than in the previous method. The derivatization yield of ketoacids with ethylchloroformate was found to be highly dependent on the composition of the reaction medium. Because the detection limit was not as low as expected, another derivatization procedure was investigated. It was found that aldehydes and ketoacids gave a strong linear response in the ppb range.