UV spectral deconvolution: A valuable tool for waste water quality determination

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Abstract
This paper presents a new, rapid and simple method for the determination of water quality, in particular the evaluation of Organic Carbon, nitrate and total suspended solids in waters. On the basis of UV spectral deconvolution, its principle supposes that the absorbency spectrum of water can be decomposed from a few number of characteristic spectra. For a given parameter, for example Organic Carbon (O.C.), the O.C. values of the characteristic spectra are used for the computation of the O.C. in the sample. The method was tested with a lot of samples of wastewaters: as an example, the estimated O.C. value is very close to the measured one as the correlation coefficient (for more than a hundred data) is 0.92. The quality of measurement is appreciated by studying the error between measured and restituted (after deconvolution) absorbency spectra. Moreover a simple colour code can be proposed in relation to water quality.