Online monitoring of bromate in ozonized water without a previous separation process

The use of ozonation for the purification of drinking water can lead to the formation of bromate. The US Environmental Protection Agency and the European Directive for human drinking water has lowered the regulatory level for bromate down to 10 microg l(-1), such that methods must be developed for monitoring the formation of bromate, particularly in on-site situations. In the present work we report a fluorometric method for the determination of bromate based on the reaction with carbostyril-124, a compound that shows fluorescence mainly at pH values above 4 and, when bromated, generates a non-fluorescent product. The reaction can thus be used as an indirect method for determination of the ion. The proposed method, which uses the flow injection (FI) technique, allows online application and kinetic control of the variables affecting the process, together with shorter reaction times, and it provides maximum sensitivity and selectivity. Under optimum conditions, it is possible to determine the analyte within the 4-200 microg l(-1) range, with a limit of detection of 0.9 microg l(-1) and a relative standard deviation (n=12, [BrO3-]=5 and 30 microg l(-1)) of 3.2% and 2.6% respectively. The determination rate was ten samples per hour.