Abstract
Objectives: The objective of this study was to investigate whether the ammonia nitrogen concentration of aqueous samples such as drinking water can be determined by measuring the saturation of the samples colored by indophenol method. Methods: A color saturation measurement system was constructed by connecting a notebook computer to an image acquisition device composed of a PC camera and a light source, and was then used to measure the saturation of samples colored by blue indophenol complex. Results: Between two available light sources, a fluorescent lamp was selected due to its demonstrating better linearity between color saturation and ammonia nitrogen concentration. Prediction by quadratic regression was more accurate than by linear regression, and prediction by quadratic regression in the concentration range of 0.1-1.0 $mg/l$ was more accurate than in the concentration range of 0.0-1.0 $mg/l$. Regression-based predictions over 0.25 $mg/l$, 0.55 $mg/l$ and 0.75 $mg/l$ concentrations were implemented both by spectrophotometric method and by measuring color saturation. In the case of 0.25 $mg/l$, the predicted concentration by spectrophotometric method was $0.256{\pm}0.0076\;mg/l$ and the predicted concentration by measuring color saturation was $0.246{\pm}0.0086\;mg/l$ (p=0.051). In the case of 0.55 $mg/l$, they were $0.561{\pm}0.0068\;mg/l$ and $0.564{\pm}0.0166\;mg/l$ (p=0.660). In the case of 0.75 $mg/l$, they were $0.755{\pm}0.0139\;mg/l$ and $0.762{\pm}0.0088\;mg/l$ (p=0.215). Conclusions: There were no statistically significant differences (p>0.05) between the data from the two methods in all three of the concentrations. Therefore, the color saturation measurement method proposed in this paper may be considered applicable for determining the ammonia nitrogen concentration of aqueous samples such as drinking water.
