GETTING THE RIGHT RESULT

摘要

Filtration through 0.45μm membrane filters is therninternationally accepted standard for analysis ofrndissolved parameters. However, standard methods dornnot generally provide further guidance on preparationrnof samples for analysis. This study measured colour, UVrnabsorbance at 254nm (UV254) and dissolved organicrncarbon (DOC) on a range of water sources followingrnfiltration with both vacuum and syringe filtration usingrn0.45μm and 0.22μm mixed cellulose esters (MCE) andrnpolyethersulphone (PES) membranes.rnThe filtration step was shown to affect the resultingrnwater quality results due to a range of causes includingrnfouling of the membrane, ineffective removal ofrnturbidity, leaching of organics and/or “over-pressuring”rn(during syringe filtration). Review of this data hasrnshown that effective filtration is critical when preparingrnsamples for analysis to ensure accurate and consistentrnresults. Therefore, it is recommended that filtration forrnpreparation of samples to be analysed for true colour,rnfiltered UV254 and DOC be undertaken with 0.45μmrnPES membranes using vacuum filtration.