Can anyone please tell me, how to detect or find any unknown compounds (like organics, carbohydrates or some enzymes secreted by algae.) present in water samples?
Hi. my suggestion is you can directly use solvents to extract the chemicals in water and perform GC-MS (If u focusing volatile compounds ) or HPLC -MS or LC-MS (non - volatile)..you can apply direct solvent extraction and commercial columns also available ..that you can use for specific requirements.
I think you can find these compounds by high pressure liquid chromatography HPLC. However it would be better to use an LC-MS or GC-MS (depending on your samples) that will give you more confidence in the results. However for some samples may be necessary the use of procedures for preparing samples for them to be detected by UV or fluorescence in the case of HPLC.
If you can expect few compounds it may contain from literature, it will be easy to go for chemical tests for those compounds, otherwise GC-MS is the best option to clear spectrum of compounds that the algae secretion contain.
If you do not want to specify the compounds, then a DOC (Dissolved Organic Carbon) or COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) Analysis as sum parameters will give you an idea of the total organics in the water.
Dear Mr.Kakarla,
My suggestion is 1st extraction is done because there are not only few compounds in algae there are many compounds in it, 2nd identification is done. Research techniques you required for identification like NMR, MASS etc.
1. You will get molecular mass through Mass spectroscopy.
2. You will get proton number (no. of Hydrogen) NMR spectroscopy.
3. You will get C, H, N, S numbers.
With the help of these you will suggest a molecular structure of your new compounds (if any unknown compound is there).Otherwise if you find the molecular weight of any known and expected compound through Mass spectroscopy, you will not perform any other technique for further study.
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