Application of flow-injection potentiometric system for determination of total concentration of aliphatic carboxylic acids

In this work, flow-injection system with potentiometric detection was tested for determination of total carboxylic acid concentration. Detection part of the examined system consists of ion-selective electrodes (ISEs) with polymer membranes of different compositions. First electrode is based on Zr(IV)-tetraphenylporphyrin as ionophore selective towards carboxylic acid anions, the membrane of second one contains only liphophilic anion exchanger - tridodecylmethylammonium chloride. Final response of the system is a result of combination of EMF signals from both electrodes. Combination of two detectors enables significant decrease of differences between potentiometric signals induced by mixtures of studied anions of various concentrations as compared to results obtained only with metalloporphyrin-based ISE. The use of anion-exchanger based detector allows for elimination of the influence of aliphatic carboxylic acids lipophilicity.Proposed potentiometric flow-injection system was employed for determination of short-chain aliphatic carboxylic acids (so-called VFA - volatile fatty acids) in samples originating from an anaerobic digester. Results obtained for these relatively complicated samples are in good agreement with results obtained with the use of reference colorimetric method.Linear response towards carboxylic acids was observed in the concentration range of 10⁻⁴ to 10⁻² mol dm⁻³, with the slopes in the range of −110 to −150 mV dec⁻¹ (for acetate⁻ and butyrate⁻, respectively). System enables for determination of about 6 samples per hour. Life time of ISEs average about 2 months.