Fast spectrophotometric determination of fluoride in ground waters by flow injection using partial least-squares calibration

The presence of sulphate constitutes a serious interference in the usual zirconium lake-based spectrophotometric method for the determination of fluoride in water. In this report, full spectral data have been recorded for the zirconium lake of 2-(parasulfophenylazo)-1,8-dihydroxy-3,6-naphthalene-disulfonate (SPADNS) in the simultaneous presence of fluoride and sulphate, as obtained with a flow injection system with a diode-array detector. The information has been processed with partial least-squares (PLS) multivariate calibration. Adequate modeling using a sixteen-sample calibration set allows fluoride to be determined in ground waters by the automated flow injection method, even in the presence of sulphate in concentrations up to 1000 mg l^-1. In the calibration range 0–1.50 mg l^-1 for fluoride, the limit of detection is 0.1 mg l^-1. The fluoride contents in real samples, as determined with the present method, were satisfactorily compared with those provided by ion selective potentiometry.