NEW INSIGHT INTO CORRELATED QUANTIFICATION AND SPECTRAL EVALUATION OF CDOM USING UV-VIS ABSORBANCE AND FLUORESCENCE

Colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) measurements with fluorescence and absorbance are important for evaluating a wide variety natural and industrial water sources. However, uncertainties and ambiguities continue to be propagated regarding interpretation of CDOM spectral data due to the variety of instruments, sampling chemistry conditions and types of analysis algorithms. Recent efforts have focused on standardization and interlaboratory comparisons of CDOM samples with respect to preparation, spectroscopic evaluation and mathematical analysis. This study deals with correlating absorbance and fluorescence data measured with the same sample to minimize interlaboratory variation. The theoretical significance of true simultaneous acquisition of the corrected (NIST Traceable) absorbance spectrum and fluorescence excitation spectral profile and excitation emission map is discussed as a means to provide the least ambiguous spectral data. Key issues considered are the variations introduced by ‘serial’ acquisitions of absorbance and fluorescence data. Variation can be caused by the different light-exposure history (especially UV) in the instruments, dissolved oxygen content associated with temperature changes and oxidation kinetics of the CDOM and in many cases concentration- and pH-related changes associated with diluting and pH buffering of the CDOM sample, respectively. Concentration changes in CDOM can be associated with optical anomalies including self-quenching and -absorption which systematically alter the fluorescence spectrum. Clearly, monitoring the absorbance and fluorescence simultaneously would deal with the above sampling variations and facilitate correcting the absorbance based fluorescence anomalies. The proposed method(s) described will be discussed in view of their potential to serve as the basis for an international technical specification in terms of the optical instrument and sampling conditions for CDOM analysis and reporting.