Measurement of Total Phosphorus in Water by Absorption Spectophotometry

Introduction

Phosphorus, widely found in various products such as fertilizer, agricultural pesticides, dyes, processed food and alkaline detergent, has greatly enriched our lives. However, it also contaminates the environmental waters by flowing into rivers and lakes along with residential and industrial waste water, or agricultural runoff. Phosphorous and nitrogen, which enhance the growth of plankton in lakes, are used as indices of eutrophication. Consequently, measurement of phosphorus concentration is important for water quality management. The spectrophotometric absorption method has long been used to measure the total phosphorus concentration in water quality testing. Reported here is an investigation to determine the concentration range within which the quantitation of phosphorus can be performed using Shimadzu’s UV-VIS spectrophotometer UV-2550.

July 21, 2004 GMT