Organic pollutant detection

Metal pollutant and organic pollutant detection are highly important for environmental monitoring. However, conventional environmental detection suffers from lengthy process, low specificity, and low sensitivity and requires tedious routine lab work. There exists an urgent need of innovative solutions for dynamic, rapid, and accurate detection due to target components fluctuating from time to time and from location to location. Paper-based sensors can provide an... 

X. Li, G. Chen, L. Yang, Z. Jin, J. Liu, Multifunctional Au-coated Ti02 nanotube arrays as recyclable SERS substrates for multifold organic pollutants detection. Adv. Funct. Mater. 20, 2815 (2010b)... 

Yan H.M., Kraus G., Gauglitz G., Detection of Mixtures of Organic Pollutants in Water by Polymer Film Receptors in Fibre-Optical Sensors Based on the Reflectometric Interference Spectrometry, Anal ChimActa 1995 312 1-8. 

Guerra, G. Mensitieri, G. Venditto, V., Method for the detection of organic pollutants using syndiotactic polystyrene polymers as sensing elements, US Patent 20020073764 2002... 

The power of analytical instrumentation currently available makes it possible to detect organic pollutants at extremely low concentrations in various environmental samples [64, 362-365]. Such low detection limits are essential if pollutants are to be measured with the accuracy and precision required for modeling their chemodynamic behavior. Most of the work on organic analysis and characterization has resulted from the use of GC and GC-MS. 

Zimmerman, L.R. Thurman, E.M. Bastian, K.C. 2000, Detection of persistent organic pollutants in the Mississippi Delta using semipermeable membrane devices. Sci.Total Environ. 248 169-179. 

The method detection limit is, in reality, a statistical concept that is applicable only in trace analysis of certain types of substances, such as organic pollutants by gas chromatographic methods. The method detection limit measures the minimum detection limit of the method and involves all analytical steps, including sample extraction, concentration, and determination by an analytical instrument. Unlike the instrument detection limit, the method detection limit is not confined only to the detection limit of the instrument. 

In the environmental analysis of organic pollutants, the method detection limit is the minimum concentration of a substance that can be measured and reported with 99% confidence that the analyte concentration is greater than zero and is... 

Radionuelides can be also used to study the accumulation and degradation of organic pollutants. In our experiments we have followed the uptake and degradation of labelled TNT by wetland plants (Nepovim et al., 2005), and showed that about 63% of the localized in the roots of Ph. australis was bound (Fig. 6) and the remainder was acetone-extractable. An HPLC analysis of the acetone extract failed to detect any TNT, showing that all TNT had been chemically transformed. Thus TNT was not adsorbed on the root surface. In similar experiments performed in wheat (Triticum aestivum). Sens et al. (1999) found that 57% of the taken up was bound... 

The CONCENTRATION AND ANALYSIS of organic pollutants in environmental aqueous samples have been the focus of many studies (1-6). Included in these studies are (1) the large number of organic compounds and their functional diversity (2) the variation in their levels (3) the variety of methods to concentrate or separate these compounds from an aqueous matrix and (4) techniques for detection, identification, or analysis. However, it is rather difficult to find many comparative studies involving all these factors. 

A Farran, JL Cortina, J De Pablo, D Barcelo. On-line continous-flow extraction sistem in liquid chromatography with UV and mass spectrometric detection for the determination of selected organic pollutants. Anal Chim Acta 234 119-126, 1990. 

Gas chromatography (GC) is the most common analytical technique for the quantitative determination of organic pollutants in aqueous and nonaqueous samples. In environmental analysis, a very low detection limit is required to determine the pollutants at trace levels. Such low detection can be achieved by sample concentration followed by cleanup of the extract to remove interfering substances. Sample extractions and cleanup procedures are described in detail in Chapter 5 of Part 1 of this text. 

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