I did my research using UV Visible spectroscopy and was wondering if there is a better method of analyzing nitrate, nitrite and phosphate in fluids like water or alcohol
Article A Comparison of the Levels of Nitrate, Nitrite and Phosphate...
Nitrate may also be determined by several methods including ion chromatography, liquid membrane electrodes, and colorimetrically using a UV - VIS spectrophotometer.
Nitrite seldom appears in concentrations greater than 1 mg/L, even in waste-treatment-plant effluents. Its concentration in unpolluted surface and ground waters is normally below 0.1 mg/L. Nitrite is also commonly measured using ion chromatography, liquid membrane electrodes, or colorimetrically.
As with organic nitrogen, in order to determine organic phosphorus the organic compounds must first be oxidized. This may be accomplished by any of three methods involving perchloric acid, nitric-sulfuric acid, or persulfate.
Many researchers use both UV-Vis spectrophotometry and electrode techniques for the determination of nitrate, nitrite and phosphate in water/alcohol samples.
Other methods are convenient for laboratory measurement, but on site, suspended solids, turbidity, contamination and interference mean that results may not be reliable. Moreover, they need reagents which have many disadvantages: high operating costs, poor stability and water pollution.
UV Visible Spectroscopy is the only method which gives high stability and high reliability for on-line measurements, the effective low maintenance and low operating costs of our on-line analyzers.
The advantage of the electrode method is that it is fast and can be carried out in the field.
Hello there,
Better methods for analysing anions including nitrate, nitrite and phosphate are ion chromatography (IC) and liquid chromatography (LC). These methods are fast and can analyse all of the analytes in one go. As usual, operational standards, international standards and replicates must be added into the analytical batch for quality assurance of the results.
Agree with Aly, Ion chromatography is best. For accurate quantification if you have an access to LC-MS/MS try this. You need to validate and generate MRM plot only once and you can work in FIA mode to get the data with in 2 minutes. LC-MS is gold standard.
It all depends what you want. All of the methods that have been discussed have positives and negatives. If you have access to someone who will do LC-MS work for you... by all means... use them. I'm not sure that I'd want to own/operate/maintain one in my lab for the use that you discuss. It seems like overkill, unless you plan to use it routinely. If I were you, and you're comfortable with the UV-Vis method and the associated reagents/procedures... I'd go with an Ocean Optics UV/Vissystem. They are small, modular, VERY rugged (I have used them in the field extensively), and require no maintenance. If you want a system that can do the flow injection front end for you, I'd highly recommend calling Whitney King at Waterville Analytical.
Mr. Masime, you may apply the UV-VIS spectroscopy for analysis of the nitrate, nitrite and phosphat but the method performance parameters showed high concentration limits of detection and low selectivity. From spectroscopic methods a higher selectivity you may achieved by the Raman spectroscopy. But also at relatively high concentration limits of detection. Furthermore both spectroscopic methods are limited towards the complex matrix components in fluids.
In this respect, the recommendations of Mr. Ali and Mr. Shinde are very valuable. Because of for nutrients analysis only by MS-based methods is possible to achieve a high selectivity, and low concentration limits of detection in complex fluid matrixes.
Hi Z. Aly, Manohar Shinde, Eric Roy and Bojidarka Ivanova . I appreciate your contribution and this will help me in my future research. Merry Christmas
Yes, of course the spectroscopic method can solve the nutrient analysis because it give accuracy than gravitimetric method
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