Improved ultraviolet spectrophotometric method for determination of nitrate in natural waters

An improved UV spectrophotometric method for determination of nitrate in natural waters was proposed and the determination accuracy of the method was discussed in this study. As a result of estimation of the proposed method, adoption of 215 and 220 nm for detection of nitrate and interfering substances resulted in decreasing standard error to about a half of that of a conventional spectrophotometric method. One of the reasons was thought that the coefficient of variation of relative absorbance of interfering substances (r_s) at 215 nm was smaller and more stable than that at 275 nm, which was used in the conventional method. The other reason inferred was that most of the interfering substances absorbed UV light at wavelengths of 215 and 220 nm. Although r_s has to be renewed when targeted water quality is under extreme conditions, the procedure of the proposed method is very simple, namely only measuring two UV absorbances of a filtrated sample, and more accurate than the conventional spectrophotometric method. Consequently, the proposed method is available for rapid determination of nitrate in natural waters.