Liquid core waveguide spectrophotometry for the sensitive determination of nitrite in river water samples

A flow injection analysis system was built with a liquid core waveguide spectrophotometric detector using an 80 cm Teflon AF-1600 capillary tube (2,2-bistrifluoromethyl-4,5-difluoro-1,3-dioxole/tetrafluoroethylene). The system was applied to determine nitrite ion in river water samples. The lower limit of detection for nitrite was 2.1 nmol dm(-3) (0.1 ng dm(-3) as NO(2)(-)) and the relative standard deviation of measurements was typically 0.56% (n = 5) at 0.21 micromol dm(-3).