High-precision and on-line measurement of dissolved organic matter in Electro-Fenton process based on dual wavelength analysis with combination of fluorescence emission and ultraviolet absorption spectroscopy

Electro-Fenton (EF) process is a significant water treatment method for the degradation of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in water and has been widely studied and applied in the past decade to degrade various dissolved organics. During water treatment, in order to monitor the degradation efficiency, it is in dire need to develop rapid and accurate methods that are favorable to assay on-line and on-site to provide feedback in a timely manner. UV–Visible absorption spectroscopy and Excitation-Emission Matrix (EEM) fluorescence spectroscopy techniques are most potential to realize on-line DOM measurement, but the measurement accuracy is unsatisfactory because of the obligatory involvement of iron-containing interferents. This study aims to simplify the measurement system complexity while overcoming the effect of iron-containing interferents during the measurement. An intrinsic relationship between the measured DOM concentration and the ultraviolet absorption at λ1 and the light intensities of the fluorescence emission at λ2 is derived theoretically and proved, based on which the influence of iron ions and their complexes on the spectrum can be eliminated, thus the content of DOM in the Electro-Fenton process is accurately determined. The proposed dual wavelength analysis with combination of fluorescence emission and ultraviolet absorption spectroscopy can achieve high precision (R2=0.9882, RMSE=0.0131mg/L). Furthermore, the on-line measurement design, called ultraviolet absorption-fluorescence emission dual wavelength analyzer, only includes one ultraviolet LED and two photodetectors. Its structure is simple and suitable for on-line monitoring DOM in EF process.