Journal of Tropical Oceanography ›› 2024, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (4): 144-152.doi: 10.11978/2023144CSTR: 32234.14.2023144

• Marine Chemistry • Previous Articles     Next Articles

In situ rapid analytical method for ammonia nitrogen concentration in estuarine zone*

HE Jiawei1,2(), YANG Zeming1, ZHAO Jincheng1,2, ZHANG Xianqing1, LI Cai1(), LI Zhihao3, LIN Yongquan3, CHEN Rong3   

  1. 1. State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510301, China
    2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
    3. Guangzhou He Shi Tong Electronic Technology Co., Guangzhou 510300, China
  • Received:2023-10-08 Revised:2023-10-25 Online:2024-07-10 Published:2024-07-22
  • Supported by:
    Research and Development Projects in Key Areas of Guangdong Province(2020B1111020004); Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangzhou Nansha District Guangzhou City China(2022ZD001); National Key Research and Development Program(2016YFC1400603); National Key Research and Development Program(2017YFC0506305); Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation(2021A1515110639); Hainan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China(422QN441); Open Project Program of the State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography(LTOZZ2003)

Abstract:

With the goal of in situ reliable measuring of the ammonia nitrogen by a self-developed in situ analyzer, a rapid analysis method for ammonia nitrogen concentration in estuarine zones has been established based on the improved indophenol blue spectrophotometry. Through the orthogonal experimental analysis on the incomplete chromogenic reaction time and salinity, the optimal incomplete chromogenic reaction time for in situ automated rapid measurements under different salinity conditions has been established and the variation of the optimal incomplete chromogenic reaction time of the samples with salinity in each range has been determined. The study shows that the optimal reaction time for the rapid measurement of ammonia nitrogen in the range of salinity from 0‰ to 25‰ gradually increases with the increase of salinity and the minimum reaction time is 60s (salinity: 5‰) and the maximum reaction time is 180s (salinity: 25‰). With a 10 cm LWCC (liquid waveguide capillary cell) and 60s reaction time, the detection limit of this method acquired by taking 11 parallel samples of blank samples is 0.9945 μmol·L-1 (salinity: 5‰), and the R2 of the standard working curve of the method was more than 0.99, which proved that the improved indophenol blue spectrophotometric method can meet the in situ rapid analysis of ammonia nitrogen in estuarine zones. The in situ analyzer has deployed in the Zhanjiang Bay for the time series monitoring of ammonia nitrogen concentration, and the monitoring data revealed that there is a good negative correlation between the ammonia nitrogen concentration and the salinity in the Zhanjiang Bay during the monitoring period. The consumption of samples and reagents during the detection and analysis process is very small (μL), and the reaction time is short (60 s, salinity: 5‰), and these features make the analyzer ideally suited for long time series monitoring of ammonia nitrogen concentration in estuarine waters.

Key words: ammonia nitrogen, sequential injection analysis, incomplete color rendering, rapid measurement, spectrophotometry