Improved and rapid method for the spectrofluorimetric determination of trace amounts of polyacrylamides in waters

Abstract

The determination of trace amounts of non-ionic, cationic and anionic polyacrylamides in waters has been critically investigated. The polyacrylamides are reacted with hypochlorite from either sodium hypochlorite or Chloramine T to produce amines, which are then reacted with fluorescamine to give intensely fluorescent compounds. There are good linear correlations between the concentration and the fluorescence intensity for all three types of polymers studied. A procedure is proposed for the determination of the polyacrylamides in both fresh and saline waters. The over-all time of the determination is approximately 2 h, which compares favourably with previously reported methods which require 48 h. The relative standard deviation at the 5 mg l^–1 level is approximately 5%.