System and Method for Spectrophotometric Measurement of Total Alkalinity Using a Liquid Core Waveguide
AssigneeUniversity of South Florida
InventorsRobert Byrne, Eric Kaltenbacher, Xuewu Liu
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Abstract
A system and method for spectrophotometrically measuring the total alkalinity of a liquid sample. In a particular aspect, the method involves equilibration of a CO2 gas with a sample solution across the permeable walls of a Teflon AF 2400 liquid core waveguide. The waveguide acts as both an equilibration membrane and an optical cell in which spectrophotometric pH measurements are obtained via measurements of absorbance ratios.
Claims20
A method of measuring the total alkalinity of a sample liquid using a liquid core waveguide having a gas permeable membrane, the liquid core waveguide positioned in an interior cavity of an equilibration chamber, the method comprising the steps of:
- introducing a flow of gas into the interior cavity of the equilibration chamber;
- introducing a sample liquid including a pH indicator into the interior of the liquid core waveguide;
- allowing the gas to equilibrate across the gas permeable membrane of the liquid core waveguide;
- measuring the absorbance ratio of the sample liquid at a plurality of wavelengths using the liquid core waveguide;
- and
- calculating the total alkalinity of the sample liquid from the measured absorbance ratios.
A system for measuring the total alkalinity of a sample liquid, the system comprising:
- a equilibration chamber having an interior cavity;
- a liquid core waveguide having a gas permeable membrane, the liquid core waveguide positioned within the interior cavity of the equilibration chamber, the liquid core waveguide for measuring the absorbance ratio of the sample liquid at a plurality of wavelengths;
- a gas flow introduced into the interior cavity of the equilibration chamber;
- a sample liquid including a pH indicator introduced into the interior of the liquid core waveguide;
- and
- means for calculating the total alkalinity of the sample liquid from the measured absorbance ratios.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.