Abstract
A sensitive flow-injection method for the chemiluminescent determination of ultra-low concentration of nitrate in water is presented. Nitrate is on-line photolytically converted to peroxynitrite by absorption of UV light inside of 60 mm long quartz capillary (i.d. 530 µm, o.d. 720 µm). Peroxynitrite is subsequently determined by the chemiluminescent reaction with luminol. The detection limit of nitrate is 7 × 10−10 M (S/N = 3). The linear range of the method is 2 × 10−9–1 × 10−5 M nitrate. The interference of nitrite is eliminated by its conversion to nitrogen after mixing of sample with a solution of sulfamidic acid. Other common anions do not interfere. The interference of cations is eliminated by passing the sample through a cation-exchange column. The FIA procedure allows analysing of 15 samples per hour. The method was applied to the determination of nitrate in various real water samples. The results are in good agreement with a reference ion chromatographic method.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by Institute of Analytical Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic under an institutional support RVO:68081715 and by Grant Agency of Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic under grant No. 0901 8 7150 R/1.