Abstract
Water sample preservation and pre-treatment are important steps for achieving accurate and reproductive results from tracer tests. However, this is particularly challenging for complex water mixtures prior to fluorescence analysis. In this study, the interference of iron and calcium precipitation with nine commonly applied conservative tracers, uranine, eosin, 1‑naphthalene sulfonate, 1,5-naphthalene disulfonate, 2,6-naphthalene disulfonate, 4‑amino-1-naphthalene sulfonate, 6‑hydroxy-2-naphthalene sulfonate, 1,3,6-naphthalene trisulfonate, and 1,3,6,8-pyrene tetrasulfonate, was investigated in batch experiments. In general, the observed results are influenced by precipitates. A technique consisting of pH adjustment and centrifugation is described for preserving samples and avoiding the impact of these precipitates on the tracer test results.
Zusammenfassung
Geeignete Probenkonservierungs- und Vorbehandlungsmethoden sind wichtige Voraussetzungen, um korrekte und reproduzierbare Ergebnisse aus Markierungsversuchen zu erhalten. Eine besondere Herausforderung stellt hierbei die Messung von Fluoreszenztracern in Wasserproben mit komplexer Wasserchemie dar. In diesem Zusammenhang wurde der Einfluss von Eisen- und Calcium-Präzipitaten auf die Messergebnisse von neun häufig eingesetzten Fluoreszenztracern (Uranin, Eosin, 1‑Naphthalinsulfonat, 1,5-Naphthalindisulfonat, 2,6-Naphthalindisulfonat, 4‑Amino-1-Naphthalinsulfonat, 6‑Hydroxy-2-Naphthalinsulfonat, 1,3,6-Naphthalintrisulfonat und 1,3,6,8-Pyrentetrasulfonat), in Batchexperimenten untersucht. Die Fällungsprodukte hatten zum Teil deutliche Auswirkungen auf die Messwerte. Basierend auf den Ergebnissen wird in dieser technischen Mitteilung eine Konservierungsmethode vorgeschlagen, welche durch Anpassung des pH-Wertes und Zentrifugation der Proben eine Beeinflussung der Messergebnisse durch Ausfällungen verhindert.
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Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of this work by the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam (MOET, DA-911). We further acknowledge the German Ministry for Environment (BMU), within the project REAKTHERM (grant No. 0325417) and the German Research Foundation (DFG), within the GEOCAT project (project No. LI 1314/3-1 and 1314/3-2) for financial support.
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Cao, V., Schaffer, M., Jin, Y. et al. Preservation of commonly applied fluorescent tracers in complex water samples. Grundwasser 22, 127–133 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00767-017-0356-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00767-017-0356-1