Total phosphorus determination in Eutrophic Tropical River Sediments by Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy techniques

Carla Pereira de Morais (1, 2, 3) , Gustavo Nicolodelli (4) , Milene Corso Mitsuyuki (4) , Kleydson Stênio Gaioso da Silva (1) , Frederico Fábio Mauad (5) , Stéphane Mounier (2) , Debora Marcondes Bastos Pereira Milori (1)

1 CNPDIA - Embrapa Instrumentation
2 MIO - Institut méditerranéen d'océanologie
3 Instituto de Química de São Carlos, Universidade de São Paulo, Avenida Trabalhador São-Carlense 400, São Carlos, SP, Brazil
4 Departamento Física [Florianópolis]
5 Sao Carlos School of engineering [São Paulo]

Total phosphorus (TP) in sediments is an important chemical variable in the study of the extent of eutrophication in water bodies. Two methods, based on Single Pulse (SP) and Double Pulse (DP) Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS), were developed for determining TP in the sediment cores of Brazilian rivers upstream from the Barra Bonita reservoir. TP concentration in the sediments was determined by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP OES) on digested samples. Besides, a LIBS system operating in SP and DP mode was used to develop methods for the TP quantification in sediment pellets. In LIBS, the most appropriate wavelength to measure P was at 214.91 nm. The calibration curves showed correlation coefficients of 0.93 and 0.92, limits of detection of 709 mg kg-1 and 349 mg kg-1 for SP and DP LIBS, respectively. The two proposed methods were validated and presented an average percentage error of 14% and 10% for SP and DP LIBS, respectively. The ICP OES, SP and DP LIBS data showed that the most superficial layers of the Piracicaba river, all the sedimentary layers of the Tietê river, and the confluence region present a high concentration of TP, according to Brazilian sediment quality criterion. In conclusion, SP and DP LIBS were confirmed as promising alternative tools to traditional analytical methods for monitoring the TP content in the sediments that come from different hydrographic units. The proposed method using DP LIBS proved more sensitive than SP LIBS, but the SP LIBS method demonstrated enough precision for determining TP in eutrophic river sediments.

Domaines: Chimie analytique; Géochimie

Carla Pereira de Morais, Gustavo Nicolodelli, Milene Corso Mitsuyuki, Kleydson Stênio Gaioso da Silva, Frederico Fábio Mauad, et al.. Total phosphorus determination in Eutrophic Tropical River Sediments by Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy techniques. Analytical Methods, 2021, 13 (1), pp.77-83. ⟨10.1039/D0AY02008G⟩. ⟨hal-03130783⟩