Specialists of the laboratory of instrumental methods and organic reagents of the Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry. IN AND. Vernadsky (GEOKHI) RAS has developed rapid tests for the water detection of salicylic, malonic and ascorbic acids, which are widely used in pharmaceutical manufacturing. These substances mixed with waste and natural waters disrupt the ecological balance. New methods have already been tested in the analysis of waters in the Moscow region. This was reported to socialbites.ca at the Russian Ministry of Education and Science.
The test can be done both in the laboratory and in the field. Analysis of 5-6 samples takes no more than 30 minutes, and its cost is much lower than most analogues and is determined mainly by the price of inexpensive reagents.
There are many different test systems to determine various organic and bioorganic compounds in water: from simple test strips to portable devices. However, there is no known method to precisely determine salicylic, malonic and ascorbic acids.
The methods are based on the absorption of organic acids on a specially prepared sorbent (absorption of various substances from the environment).
“Analysis time is limited by the sorption time and is conditional. In the lab, you can quickly pump the solution through the sorbent. This is the dynamic way. In field conditions, where this is not possible, the sorbent in the form of a small tablet (disc) is placed in a test tube or beaker with a sample. The larger the volume, the longer it takes to wait for the sorption to finish, but the higher the sensitivity. Often several samples are analyzed at once, Alexander Grechnikov, head of the Laboratory for Instrumental Methods and Organic Reagents at the Institute of Geochemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told socialbites.ca.
The concentration of the acid is determined by the shade of the color. For example, when determining salicylic acid, the color of sorbent discs changes from pale lilac to violet for acid content of 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 μg.
For each of the acids studied, its own selective color reaction is used, which leads to the formation of different colored acid complexes with various metals.