water testing

[Fionn]

I am interested in testing a number of water samples from different sources and determining what chemicals/pollutants may be in the samples. Would I be able to do this with an IR spectrometer? I used one years ago as a biology major but it has been a long time. I think I could re-educate myself on their use.

[hypervalent_iodine]

You would more likely use AA and maybe mass spec. I don't have much to do with it personally, but the institute I work for uses ICP machines for testing metals and other trace elements. I think you would use FTIR for testing for oils, but not much else. There are various wet methods for biological testing. I think titration is used for things like H2S, ion chromatography can do things like NH4+, Ca2+, etc. GC would be useful if you were looking at volatiles like methane or CO2.

 

What you would use depends on what kind of pollutants you want to test, really.

[EdEarl]

Many cities have water testing labs, which do not charge much.

[Iota]

If you're able to look for a 'give away' element indicative of a certain contaminant, you could use Atomic Emission Spectroscopy. In forensics for example they can look for Thallium in all sorts of liquid samples using this technique.

[John Cuthber]

I wouldn't use IR as a first choice.

Water absorbs a lot of IR so it restricts the range of frequencies that you can use to look for impurities.

Also IR isn't very sensitive.

If you are just going to use a spectrometer then UV would be better.

However, the real deciding factor is what sort of chemicals or pollutants you are looking for.

[Tridimity]

Mass spec would be your best bet