Mobile-phone-based colourimetric analysis for determining nitrite content in water
Chanida Puangpila
A B C E , Jaroon Jakmunee A B C , Somkid Pencharee D and Wipada Pensrisirikul A
A Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand.
B Environmental Science Research Center, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand.
C Research Center on Chemistry for Development of Health Promoting Products from Northern Resources, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand.
D Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Ubon Ratchathani University, Ubonratchathani 34190, Thailand.
E Corresponding author. Email: chanida.pu@cmu.ac.th
Environmental Chemistry 15(7) 403-410 https://doi.org/10.1071/EN18072
Submitted: 29 March 2018 Accepted: 5 August 2018 Published: 24 September 2018
Environmental context. A widespread pollutant in groundwater, rivers and lakes is nitrite, which is commonly determined batchwise by using colourimetry. The batchwise method, however, requires relatively large and expensive instrumentation, and hence is unsuitable for in-field measurements. This work introduces a simple and portable colourimetric analyser based on a mobile-phone camera for monitoring nitrite concentrations in environmental water samples.
Abstract. A cost-effective and portable colourimetric analyser installed on a mobile phone was used to measure nitrite in water samples in Chiang Mai City, Thailand. The colourimetric detection was based on the Griess reaction, in which nitrite ion reacts with sulfanilic acid under acidic conditions to produce a diazonium salt that further reacts with N-(1-naphthyl)-ethylenediamine dihydrochloride to form a red–violet azo dye. Under controlled conditions using a light-tight box with LED flash lights, images of the red–violet solution were captured using a built-in camera and further analysed by a program, Panalysis, on the mobile phone. The calibration graph was created by measuring the red colour intensity of a series of standard nitrite solutions from 0.09–1.8 mg N L−1. The calibration equation was then automatically stored for nitrite analysis. The results demonstrated good performance of the mobile phone analyser as an analytical instrument. The accuracy (RE <4%) and precision (RSD ≤ 1%, intra- and inter-day) were also obtained with a detection limit of 0.03 mg N L−1 and a sample throughput of 40 samples per hour. Our results establish this simple, inexpensive and portable device as a reliable in-field monitor of nitrite in environmental waters.
Additional keywords : colourimetry, Griess reaction, nitrite analyser, RGB values.
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