Monitoring and Detection Methods of Water Pollution: Monitoring and Dectection by pH

What is pH?

pH is the test of the acidity and basicity of the aqueous solution. The pH value is determined by the concentration of the hydrogen ions (H+). It is important to monitor pH as it helps us to identify the presence of toxic substances and whether aquatic organisms are able to survive and grow well in that particular pH.

Aquatic organisms live between the pH of 6.0 to 8.0.However, the pH of the water will be affected by the acid rain.

Acid Rain is formed by the sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and nitrogen oxides (NO_x) dissolved with rainwater. When precipitation occurs, the soil contain nutrients (Aluminum) will be urban wash off to sea water by leaching. This caused the pH to decrease however the aluminum levels increases. As the result, this caused the fishes have chronic stress and not able to grow well to compete for food. The aquatic organisms may not be able to adapt the change of rapid decrease of pH and the drop of food intake. As a result, the organisms maybe not be able to survive.

pH Scale :

The tolerance of the change in pH:

pH Biosensor:

The biosensor use a controlled optical source that emits light signals at specified frequencies which excite an ion-specific sensor spot in contact with the test medium.

Changes in the parameter is due to some changes in some characteristic (intensity, phase shift, etc.) of the fluorescence. Because they are inherently self-referencing, this detection technology removes measurement error arising from changes in sample properties (i.e. flow rate, viscosity, etc.) over the duration of an experiment. This ensures stable, drift-free calibration and hence reliable measurements throughout the lifespan of a sensing element.