Spectrofluorimetric method for monitoring fluorene in rivers

Abstract

This paper introduces an accurate, sensitive, easy and rapid method for monitoring fluorene in river waters. Compared to other analytical methodologies, synchronous spectrofluorimetry offers rapidity, low detection limits, and high recoveries as we show in the results section. Constant-wavelength spectrofluorimetric signals of fluorene undergoes an inner-filter effect in the presence of other Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) such as IP which makes linear calibration models not valid for the quantification of fluorene. However, alternative mathematical models facilitate the quantification of fluorene in the presence of IP. The mathematical model here introduced includes a term of interaction between the two compounds aforementioned and allowed the accurate quantification of fluorene in waters. In fact the application of the methodology proposed to real samples (tap and river waters, including a highly polluted urban river) provided us with excellent recovery percentages (around 95% in all the cases). An exhaustive comparative between our methodology and other methodologies reported in the recent literature was also carried out. This comparative showed that synchronous fluorimetry provides highly satisfactory results and in most of the cases lower detection limits and higher recoveries than other time- and solvent-consuming methodologies.