On-line solid phase extraction of humic acid from environmental water and monitoring with flow-through chemiluminescence

Abstract

An on-line solid phase extraction device combined with flow-through chemiluminescence monitoring was presented for the enrichment and determination of humic acid (HA) in water samples. The chemiluminescence principle was based on the enhancement effect of HA on the Ce(IV)/H₂SO₄–rhodamine 6G chemiluminescence system. For sample pretreatment, the on-line solid-phase extraction (SPE) material was packed into a cartridge which was then installed in the manifold. Experimental parameters including reagent concentration, flow rate and extraction time, were optimized. Under the optimized conditions, the relative standard deviation was 3.6% for determining 2 mg L⁻¹ HA standard solution and the detection limit was 3 μg L⁻¹. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of HA in the range of 0.1–35 mg L⁻¹. The results were validated by spike recovery experiments. The recovery was from 74.0% to 121%, which was good enough for the determination of HA in environmental waters.