Title: Development and Applications of a Fiber-Optic Remote Sensing System for the Determination of Organic Contaminants in Water

Focus Categories: Methods, Toxic Substances, Water Quality

Project No. ND93-06

Principal Investigator: David C. Tilotta - Department of Chemistry, UND

Completion Report

Tilotta, D.C, Development and Applications of a Fiber-Optic Remote Sensing System for the Determination of Organic Contaminants in Water, 1996, Rept. No. ND93-06, North Dakota Water Resources Research Institute, North Dakota State University, Fargo, 76 pages.

Other Publications

Wittkamp, B.L. and D.C. Tilotta, 1995, Determination of BTEX Compounds in Water by Solid Phase Microextraction and Raman Spectroscopy, Anal. Chem., 67, 600-605.

Heglund, D.L. and D.C. Tilotta, 1996, Determination of Volatile Organic Compounds in Water by Solid Phase Microextraction and Infrared Spectroscopy, Environ. Sci. Technol., 30, 1212-1219.  

Merschman, S.A. and D.C. Tilotta, 1998, Fiber-Optic Sensor for Aromatic Compounds in Water Based on Solid-Phase Microextraction and Ultraviolet Evanescent Wave Absorption Spectroscopy, Applied Spectroscopy, 52, 106-111.

Wittkamp, B.L., 1994, Detection of Environmentally-Important Compounds by Light Scattering Spectroscopy, "Ph.D. Dissertation,"Department of Chemistry, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota, 154 pages.

Heglund, D.L., 1995, Determination of Volatile Organic Compounds in Environmental Matrices by Solid Phase Microextraction and Infrared Spectroscopy, “Ph.D. Dissertation,” Department of Chemistry, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota, 176 pages. 

Syverson, S.A. 1995. Fiber-Optic pH sensor based on Evanescent Wave Absorption Spectros­copy and Solid Phase Microextraction, "M.S. Thesis", Department of Chemistry, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND, 67 pages. 

Merschman, Sheila, 1997, Solventless Determination of Aromatic Contaminants in Water by Solid Phase Microextraction and Ultraviolet Absorption Spectroscopy, “M.S. Thesis,” Department of Chemistry, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND, 102 pages. 

Tilotta, D., W. Brown, D. Heglund, B. Wittkamp and S. Merschman, Simplified Determination of VOCs in Water by Solid Phase Microextraction and Optical Spectroscopy, in Proceedings of the Fifth Biennial North Dakota Water Quality Symposium, B.D. Seelig, ed. NDSU Extension Service, pp. 99-106. 

Significant Findings

This research showed that a sensitive, fast, and reliable field-portable detection system for organic contaminants in water was feasible. In fact, the method developed for determining total petroleum hydrocarbons in water is environmentally friendly (as opposed to the existing method which uses organic solvents) and may be evaluated for use as a standard EPA method. Additionally, as a result of the preliminary work we obtained with the WRRI grant, follow-on funding from the EPA was obtained.