Qualitative determination of organic pollutants in an aquatic environment by laser-induced fluorescence combined with optical fibers

The increasing need for the recording and monitoring of the marine pollution, as well as the disadvantages usually presented by the conventional methods to qualitatively and quantitatively determine the pollutants in the marine environment, have led to the development of a new method, which is based on the technique of laser induced fluorescence combined with the use of optical fibers. In this work, we present the basic principle of the method and its improvement referred to the appropriate selection of the wavelength excitation: this permits the qualitative determination of gasoline and jet-oil in water. Furthermore, based on the different life-times, we applied the method of time-resolved spectroscopy and succeeded in identifying anthracene and pyrene, in a mixture of both aromatic compounds, despite their spectral overlap and the weak fluorescence of pyrene.