Am currently evaluating quick and efficient ways to determine heavy metals concentration within a water sample. I understand AAS and ICP-OES are the industrial standards however both are expensive and require expertise and maintenance. Would it be possible to measure conductivity as a rough estimation of the heavy metal content?
Absolutely not. Conductimetric techniques are not selective for the ions present in a solution. The measurement involves all charged particles including anions and cations. You can review the anodic and cathodic stripping voltammetry techniques, they are simpler and cheaper. Luck!
Not possible. You can estimate TDS from EC but not concentration of each metal as it is varies from place to place and depends on composition of host rock or material through which water passes. You may get two samples of same EC and TDS value but concentration of each metal will be different for both samples as it is ground type dependent.
Bernardo Gudiño Guzmán, Mário Silva , Sajjad Munir Thanks for the answer!
However, my purpose of measuring the conductivity is to evaluate the water before and after a sedimentation process. If the heavy metals were to be precipitated out into sludge at the bottom of the tank would'nt the conductivity of the water drop significantly?
I understand that I will not be able to identify the specific heavy metal contributing to the conductivity but would it be possible to estimate the removal efficiency of the sedimentation process?
Thank you in advance!
No. The conductivity measurements can be used only to estimate the total ionic content of wastewater.
I think it can only be possible if you take deionized water sample and contaminate it with the metal/s of your interest
Preciptation of heavy metal usually requires a rise in pH. In such case , the conductivity will be affected more by pH change than by removal of metal ions.
In fact, there are many quick tests and corresponding reagents or test strips that can measure low heavy metal concnetrations in water such as copper, nickel, iron, manganese etc. in less than 10 mins.
Conductivity measurements will only give idea of TDS or salinity of the wastewater. It is more reliable to use instrumental methods (AAS, ICP-OES) for accurate results.
I would recommend to use AAS/ICP instead of conductivity meter. In case, you dont have those facilities, there are few methods available which are based on spectrophotometry. Nowadays kits are also available for the calorimetric determination of some of the metals.
After precipitation of heavy metals and sedimentation the conductivity of water will drop. You can definitely estimate the removal efficiency of sedimentation process from the difference in conductivity of water before and after precipitation/sedimentation.
jamais au plus grand jamais. La détermination de la concentration concernant les métaux lourds est beaucoup plus complexe.
I am afraid that the amount of dissolved metal is not high enough as to be reflected in water conductivity.
So, I agree with the above answers: Absolutely no.
I recommend Sanjay Kumar Gupta for your answer " I would recommend to use AAS/ICP instead of conductivity meter. In case, you dont have those facilities, there are few methods available which are based on spectrophotometry. Nowadays kits are also available for the calorimetric determination of some of the metals".
Heavy metals includes in conductivity value . AAS / ICP-MS are good option for determination.
You can not measure heavy metal content with a conductivity meter , mainly because most waters have a trace heavy metal content and the conductivity mainly depicts major cations and ions . AAS is relatively a cheaper and sensitive option with quite good detection limits but since cost is a factor use of kits such as Palinest coupled with a photometer has made the cost of analysing some heavy metals to come considerably down . The only issue with these kits are the detection limits in some cases but otherwise these would be relevant in your case ,are easy to use and do not require much expertise.
Dear Sebastian Cheah,,, I think the conductivity is insufficient for the purpose of predicting the concentration of heavy metals in wastewater.The concentration of metal ions must be measured (There are many methods and analysis to measure).
Regards
Conductivity meter can not be used for heavy metal determination. Some spectroscopic methods can be used for some heavy metals which considerably cheaper than AAS or ICP.
No, because it is a non-selective method. The conductivity is influenced by all ions from water sample.
Dear Sebastian ... The TDS measurement covers any dissolved material and not specifically the heavy metals. So you may not use TDS to estimate the HM in water.
Concentration of heavy metal can not be predicted by EC . It require AAS or ICPMS for detail metal analysis .
It is not possible because determination of concentration of heavy metals requires standard method.
Yes. Heavy metals can be detected by conductivity method please Ref:
1. Heavy metal uptake by natural Zeolite and metals : Zorpas
2. Conductivity detection of metal Ion in capillary
, Tanyanyawa
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Engineering
- Modeling