A flow-through fluorimetric sensing device for determination of α- and β-naphthol mixtures using a partial least-squares multivariate calibration approach

A single flow-through optosensor spectrofluorimetric system is proposed for the resolution of mixtures of alpha- and beta-naphthol at mug 1(-1) levels using a partial least-squares (PLS) calibration approach. The sensor was developed in conjunction with a monochannel flow-injection analysis system with fluorimetric detection using Sephadex QAE A-25 resin as an active sorbent substrate in the flow cell and the second derivative of the native synchronous fluorescence spectra of analytes as analytical signal. In the manifold, the solutions of naphthol (at pH 10.0) were injected in a carrier stream of KCl (0. 15 M)/NaOH (10(-2) M). Because of the strong spectral overlap, the mixture could not be resolved by conventional spectrofluorimetry. The non-additive behaviour of the fluorescence signals revealed an interaction in the system, which was not found by working in the solution only (without the sorbent support). This interaction, probably due to the environment of the analytes on the solid phase, made impossible their simultaneous determination. So, the use of synchronous fluorescence spectroscopy or even its derivative signal could not resolve satisfactorily the mixture. The simultaneous determination of both naphthol has been carried out by recording the signal of the second-derivative synchronous fluorescence (Deltalambda = 170 mn) spectra between 200 and 450 nm and a PLS multivariate calibration treatment. The optimum number of factors was selected by using the cross-validation method. After validating the proposed method, it was applied to the determination of these compounds in natural waters with different amounts of each chemical. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.