Speaker: Jeana Benwill
Candidate for Bachelor of Science in Chemistry
Time: 2:45 PM
Place: Trustee Hall 118
Supervisor: Dr. Henry Altmiller
Title: Spectroscopic Methods for the Analysis of Arsenic in Water

Abstract: This research project compared two methods for the determination of arsenic in water. The first method used chemiluminescence from the oxidation of luminol by the arsenic heteropoly acid. This attempt was not successful because we could not obtain reproducible results. The second method used the heteropoly blue method to determine arsenic. This method has yielded reliable results. Both methods have yielded a linear relationship relating concentration and absorbance or intensity of light. The main difference between these two methods is that the chemiluminescence method is much more sensitive by a factor of 1000 compared to the heteropoly blue method. The use of these methods to determine unknown arsenic concentration in water has been limited by the need to alter protocols in order to apply these methods in a reliable way to determine unknown arsenic concentrations in water.