Sequential Injection System for Analysis of Degree Brix, Orthophosphate and pH in Raw Sugarcane Juice Applicable to Sugar Industry.

This work presents, for the first time, a new sequential injection analysis (SIA) method to simultaneously analyze degree Brix, orthophosphate and pH in raw cane juice. These key parameters relate to price of harvested sugarcane and quality of cane juice for sugar production. The SIA system employed two detectors: the first detector is a diode-array spectrophotometer, equipped with a regular flow cell, for measurements of degree Brix and orthophosphate. Quantitative of degree Brix (°Bx; ca. % (w/w) sucrose) was based on manipulation of the schlieren effect at the interface between plugs of sample and water. Orthophosphate analysis was carried out based on the molybdenum blue method with significant reduction in consumption of the reagents. Compensation of the schlieren effect from sucrose for determination of orthophosphate was achieved by using a dual-wavelength spectrometric detection. Second detector is a pH-sensing device, called ion-selective field-effect transistors (ISFET). The ISFET is based on the current through the ISFET arising according to the H+ concentration in solution. Our developed SIA system provides linear calibration graphs fitting for purpose in analysis of sugarcane juice (pH: 0-14, °Bx: 1.0-7.0 and P2O5: 20-200 mg L-1). Simultaneous analysis of sugarcane juice for pH, °Bx and P2O5 is carried out within 5 min (12 sample per h). Precision of SIA system is acceptable (RSD < 3%). Our SIA system gave quantitative results insignificantly different, as compared with conventional methods for analysis of pH, °Bx and P2O5 in sugarcane juice.

Colorimetric determination of trace orthophosphate in water by using C18-functionalized silica coated magnetite.

In this study, we customized magnetic sorbents by functionalizing silica coated magnetite with octadecyl(C18)silane (Fe3O4@SiO2@C18). This sorbent was intended for the determination of trace orthophosphate (o-PO43-) in unpolluted freshwater samples. The o-PO43- was transformed to phosphomolybdenum blue (PMB), a known polyoxometalate ion. Then the PMB were coupled with cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB), cationic surfactant, in order to hydrophobically bound with the Fe3O4@SiO2@C18 particles through dispersive magnetic solid-phase extraction (d-MSPE) as part of sample preconcentration. The PMB-CTAB-magnetic particles are simply separated from the aqueous solution by the external magnet. The acidified ethanol 0.5 mL was used as PMB-CTAB eluent to produce an intense blue solution, which the absorbance was measured using a UV-Vis spectrophotometer at 800 nm. The proposed method (employing 2 mg of Fe3O4@SiO2@C18) yielded an enhancement factor of 32 with a linear range of 1.0-30.0 µg P L-1. Precision at 6.0 µg P L-1 and 25.0 µg P L-1 were 3.70 and 2.49% (RSD, n = 6) respectively. The lower detection limit of 0.3 µg P L-1 and quantification limit of 1.0 µg P L-1 allowed trace levels analysis of o-PO43- in samples. The reliability and accuracy of the proposed method were confirmed by using a certified reference material. Our method offers highly sensitive detection of o-PO43- with simple procedures that can be operated at room temperature and short analysis time.

Sequential injection system for simultaneous determination of sucrose and phosphate in cola drinks using paired emitter-detector diode sensor.

This work presents the simultaneous determination of sucrose and phosphate by using sequential injection (SI) system with a low cost paired emitter-detector diode (PEDD) light sensor. The PEDD uses two 890 nm LEDs. Measurement of sucrose in Brix unit was carried out based on the detection of light refraction occurring at the liquid interface (the schlieren effect) between the sucrose solution and water. Phosphate was measured from the formation of calcium phosphate with turbidimetric detection. With careful design of the loading sequence and volume (sample--precipitating reagent--sample), simultaneous detection of sucrose and phosphate was accomplished with the single PEDD detector. At the optimized condition, linear calibrations from 1 to 7 Brix sucrose and from 50 to 200mg PO4(3-)L(-1) were obtained. Good precision at lower than 2% RSD (n=10) for both analytes with satisfactory throughput of 21 injections h(-1) was achieved. The method was successfully applied for the determination of sucrose and phosphate in cola drinks. The proposed method is readily applicable for automation and is found to be an alternative method to conventional procedures for on-line quality control process in cola drink industry.

A low-cost method for determination of calcium carbonate in cement by membraneless vaporization with capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection.

This work presents a flow analysis method for direct quantitation of calcium carbonate in cement without pretreatment of the sample. The method is based on online vaporization of CO(2) gas following acidification of the sample inside a small chamber that has a flow of acceptor solution passing around it. Solubilization of the CO(2) gas into the acceptor stream changes the conductivity of the acceptor solution causing an increase of signal at the capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection (C(4)D) placed at the outlet of the vaporization chamber. This chamber is an adaption from previous work reported on 'membraneless vaporization' (MBL-VP). The method can be used in the quality control of production of mixed cement. These cement materials usually have calcium carbonate contents at high concentration range (e.g., 33-99% (w/w) CaCO(3)). Analysis of samples by this method is direct and convenient as it requires no sample pretreatment. The method is low-cost with satisfactory accuracy and acceptable precision.