Using FTIR spectroscopy to measure hydrocarbon pollution in water.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF’s 2015 Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water report almost 700 million people around the world don’t have access to clean drinking water [1].
Measuring the pollution levels in water, as a means of controlling CHC levels, is critical to protecting human and environmental health.
Developing A Method to Analyze Hydrocarbons in Water When analyzing CHC levels in water, the challenge is to use a suitable liquid-liquid extraction method, to remove the water itself which would interfere with the measurement, with an environmentally friendly solvent.
This led to a temporary decrease in the use of FTIR in environmental water analysis for hydrocarbons.
Choosing the correct FTIR model for hydrocarbon analysis remains to be challenging.
The model should be easy to use and offer several pathlengths for added versatility.
Case Study: using Infrared Spectroscopy to Measure Hydrocarbon Levels Attenuated total reflectance (ATR) FTIR has been used to study CHCs in water [2].
Infrared Accessories for Effortless Liquid Analysis The Pearl™ liquid FTIR transmission spectrometer accessory from Specac is a high specification liquid transmission accessory, ideal for measuring hydrocarbon pollutants in water.
The Pearl’s liquid transmission Oyster™ cells are available in five pathlengths; 50μm, 100μm, 200μm, 500μm and 1,000μm, which allows for the simple calculation of sample concentrations without the need for dilutions or a calibration curve.