Spectrophotometric determination of acid volatile sulfide in river sediments by sequential injection analysis exploiting the methylene blue reaction

Two simple but effective turn-on benzothiazole-based fluorescent probes for detecting hydrogen sulfide in real water samples and HeLa cells

Two simple turn-on fluorescent probes, containing a benzothiazole and the 2,4-dinitrobenzenesulfonyl group, were designed for detecting H₂S. Two probes exhibited good selectivity and high sensitivity, which were applied to detect the H₂S in real water samples. Probe P2 with a positive charge had better solubility than probe P1 in water; therefore, probe P2 was successfully applied to detect both the endogenous and exogenous H₂S in lysosomes of living HeLa cells.

Removal of Ni(II) from strongly acidic wastewater by chelating precipitation and recovery of NiO from the precipitates

Strongly acidic wastewater produced in nonferrous metal smelting industries often contains high concentrations of Ni(II), which is a valuable metal. In this study, the precipitation of Ni(II) from strongly acidic wastewater using sodium dimethyldithiocarbamate (DDTC) as the precipitant was evaluated. The effects of various factors on precipitation were investigated, and the precipitation mechanism was also identified. Finally, the nickel in the precipitates was recovered following a pyrometallurgical method. The results show that, under optimised conditions (DDTC:Ni(II) molar ratio = 4:1; temperature = 25 °C), the Ni(II) removal efficiency reached 99.3% after 10 min. In strongly acidic wastewater, the dithiocarbamate group of DDTC can react with Ni(II) to form DDTCNi precipitates. Further recovery experiments revealed that high-purity NiO can be obtained by the calcination of DDTCNi precipitates, with the nickel recovery efficiency reaching 98.2%. The gas released during the calcination process was composed of NO₂, CS₂, H₂O, CO₂, and SO₂. These results provide a basis for an effective Ni(II) recovery method from strongly acidic wastewater.

Roles of Water Molecules and Counterion on HS- Sensing Reaction Utilizing a Pyrylium Derivative: A Computational Study

In this paper, we present a comprehensive computational study on the hydrogen sulfide ion (HS^-) sensing mechanism in aqueous solution using pyrylium-thiopyrylium transformation. Explicit water molecules up to three water molecules are considered using supramolecular models. The effect of water bulk solvent is also taken into account according to the polarizable continuum model. Our results demonstrate that water molecules are directly involved in the sensing reactions by altering reaction mechanisms and dramatically lower the activation energies. The most favorable HS^- sensing mechanism involves a 10-membered ring transition structure formed by three water molecules and one hydronium. The catalytic effects of water molecule(s) due to the alleviation of ring strain and the stabilization from deprotonated hydronium significantly lower the activation energy. The activation energies in aqueous solution decrease from 40.2 kcal/mol for the hydronium-only-catalyzed reaction to 15.7, 14.8, and 7.4 kcal/mol for one-water-, two-water-, and three-water-catalyzed mechanisms, respectively. In addition, the effect of the counterion tetrafluoroborate (BF₄^-) on the reaction mechanisms was also investigated. Our results demonstrate that the counterion BF₄^- most likely behaves as a spectator and has minor influence on the reaction mechanism.

Fast assessment of bioaccessible metallic contamination in marine sediments

A fast (16min) procedure to assess the bioaccessible metallic fraction of Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn simultaneously extracted (SEM) from marine sediments plus an indirect approach to determine acid volatile sulfides (AVS) are presented. For the extraction process magnetic agitation was compared with ultrasonic stirring (using a bath and a probe), and several stirring times were assayed. The proposed SEM procedure uses an ultrasonic probe and 1mL of HCl. It dramatically minimizes the turnaround time and the residues. AVS were evaluated as the difference between the amounts of sulphur in the solid residue after the extraction and total sulphur in the original sample. These procedures are fast, easy to implement and cost-effective to assess the potential risk posed by metals in marine sediments. They were tested using several CRMs and applied to sediments from two Galician Rias (NW Spain); their SEM-AVS differences indicated no biological risk.

Spectrophotometric determination of sulfide based on peroxidase inhibition by detection of purpurogallin formation

This paper presents a new method for spectrophotometirc detection of sulfide applying fungal peroxidase immobilized on sodium alginate. The sensing scheme was based on decrease of the absorbance of the orange compound, purpurogallin produced from pyrogallol and H2O2 as substrates, due to the inhibition of peroxidase by sulfide. Absorbance of purpurogallin was detected at 420nm by using a spectrophotometer. The proposed method could successfully detect the sulfide in the concentration range of 0.6-7.0μM with a detection limit of 0.4μM. The kinetic parameters of Michaelis-Menten with and without sulfide were also calculated. Possible inhibition mechanism of peroxidase by sulfide was deduced according to the variation of parameters and uncompetitive mechanism was observed with respect to hydrogen peroxide. The current method provides an easy to use method for sulfide detection in water samples.

Direct introduction of water sample in multisegmented flow-injection analysis for sulfide determination

The present paper describes an inline flow-injection analysis system for the determination of sulfide in water samples, exploiting the Fischer reaction. Water samples were collected and introduced into a reactor of the FIA system. The sulfide released, after sample acidification, was carried out with a nitrogen gas flow and mixed with N,N diethyl-p-phenylenediamine (DEPD) solution in the presence of Fe(III). The blue dye formed was measured in the wavelength range between 672-679 nm. An evaluation of the effects of chemical and flow factors was performed using the factorial design of two levels, while optimization was accomplished by a Doehlert matrix. The system presented two linear-response ranges: the first of 0.433 to 400 µg L(-1) and the second of 400 to 3500 µg L(-1). The detection and quantification limit were found to be 0.130 and 0.433 µg L(-1), respectively, while the sample throughput was 12 h(-1). The precision was evaluated as the relative standard deviation (n = 10); for 50 and 100 µg L(-1) sulfide it was found to be 1.9 and 2.3%, respectively. The method showed satisfactory selectivity regarding the main interference present in environmental samples. The accuracy of the method was successfully evaluated in environmental water samples after a comparison with a literature reference method.

Analysis of the environmental impact on a stream: is only tannery to blame?

The contribution of wastewater from a tannery industry to the pollution of a stream was investigated. The main parameters studied were biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, chromium, dissolved oxygen, fecal and total coliforms, nitrogen, oils and greases, pH, phosphorous, sulfides, suspended solids, turbidity, and volatile solids. Three sampling points were located: (1) at the discharge point of tannery wastewater, (2) 50 m upstream, and (3) 80 m downstream of discharge point. Also was investigated the pollution at the stream source.

Fluorescent method for the determination of sulfide anion with ZnS:Mn quantum dots

Water-soluble Mn(2+)-doped ZnS quantum dots (QDs) were prepared using mercaptoacetic acid as the stabilizer. The optical properties and structure features were characterized by X-Ray, absorption spectrum, IR spectrum and fluorescence spectrum. In pH 7.8 Tris-HCl buffer, the QDs emitted strong fluorescence peaked at 590 nm with excitation wavelength at 300 nm. The presence of sulfide anion resulted in the quenching of fluorescence and the intensity decrease was proportional to the S(2-) concentration. The linear range was from 2.5 x 10(-6) to 3.8 x 10(-5) mol L(-1) with detection limit as 1.5 x 10(-7) mol L(-1). Most anions such as F(-), Cl(-), Br(-), I(-), CH(3)CO(2) (-), ClO(4) (-), CO(3) (2-), NO(2) (-), NO(3) (-), S(2)O(3) (2-), SO(3) (2-) and SO(4) (2-) did not interfere with the determination. Thus a highly selective assay was proposed and applied to the determination of S(2-) in discharged water with the recovery of ca. 103%.

A smart multisyringe flow injection system for analysis of sample batches with high variability in sulfide concentration

A fully automated smart multisyringe flow injection analysis (MSFIA) system for the monitoring of sulfide in a wide concentration range is proposed. It allows the determination of sulfide in samples containing suspended solids without requiring any preliminary batch sample treatment. The smart system is able to choose by itself the best approach to quantify the analyte, selecting either a spectrophotometric or a reflectometric detection. The method, carried out in a multi-commuted system, is based on the analyte release as hydrogen sulfide from the donor channel of the gas-diffusion module into an alkaline acceptor channel solution, which is merged with N,N-dimethyl-p-phenylenediamine (DMPD) and Fe(III). The in-line generated methylene blue (MB) dye can be delivered to an optical fiber diffuse reflectance sensor or to a flow-cell spectrophotometer according to the analyte concentration. The detection limit (3s(b)/S) was 4.6 microg l(-1). Two linear calibration graphs between 50-1000 and 500-10000 microg l(-1) sulfide for reflectometry and spectrophotometry, respectively, were obtained. The potentialities of this method were assessed via the determination of sulfide at a wide range of concentrations (4.6 microg l(-1) to 100 mg l(-1)). The high selectivity and sensitivity, the low reagent consumption and the miniaturization of the proposed automated method should be highlighted.

Spectrophotometric Determination of Sulfide in the Presence of Sulfite and Thiosulfate via the Precipitation of Bismuth(III) Sulfide

A photometric method has been developed for the determination of sulfide at 10(-5) mol dm(-3) levels, which is based on the reaction of sulfide with a given excess amount of bismuth(III) to form a precipitate of bismuth(III) sulfide and on the spectrophotometric measurement of the residual bismuth(III) at 335 nm after extracting with bismuthiol II reagent from an aqueous solution containing acetate buffer into benzene. The presence of sulfite and thiosulfate up to 0.002 mol dm(-3) did not cause any interference in the determination of sulfide, because both sulfite and thiosulfate do not produce any precipitate with bismuth(III). A linear calibration plot with a negative slope was obtained for sulfide over the range of 5.00 x 10(-7) - 3.00 x 10(-5) mol dm(-3) (16.0 - 960 ppb). An experimental calibration plot was in accord with the theoretical plot, taking into account the known excess of bismuth(III), showing that the reaction of sulfide with bismuth(III) proceeded to completion. The relative standard deviation of results from 10 replicate determinations of standard sulfide (2.00 x 10(-5) mol dm(-3)) was 0.44%. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of sulfide in hotspring water samples without any pretreatment.