Publication
An automatic gas-phase molecular absorption spectrometric system using a UV-LED photodiode based detector for determination of nitrite and total nitrate
Publisher:
Elsevier BV
Date:
04-2011
DOI:
10.1016/J.TALANTA.2011.01.048
Abstract: An automatic gas-phase molecular absorption spectrometric (GPMAS) system was developed and applied to determine nitrite and total nitrate in water s les. The GPMAS system was coupled with a UV-light emitting diode photodiode (UV-LED-PD) based photometric detector, including a 255 nm UV-LED as the light source, a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) tube of 14 cm as the gas flow cell, and an integrated photodiode lifier to measure the transmitted light intensity. The UV-LED-PD detector was compact, robust, simple and of low heat production, comparing with detectors used in other GPMAS works. For nitrite measurement, citric acid was used to acidify the s le, and ethanol to catalyze the quantitative formation of NO(2). The produced NO(2) was purged with air flow into the UV-LED-PD detector, and the gaseous absorbance value was measured. The total nitrate could be determined after being reduced to nitrite with a cadmium column. Limits of detection for nitrite and nitrate were 7 μmol/L and 12 μmol/L, respectively and linear ranges of 0.021-5 mmol/L for nitrite and 0.036-4 mmol/L for nitrate were obtained. Related standard deviations were 1.81% and 1.08% for nitrite and nitrate, respectively, both at 2 mmol/L. The proposed method has been applied to determine nitrite and total nitrate in some environmental water s les.