Determination of colloid silver in drinking water by flow injection analysis with TLS spectrometric UV detection

In this work flow injection analysis coupled to collinear dual beam thermal lens spectrometric UV detection was used for determination of silver in water. The detection is based on the increase in absorbance resulting from the formation of colloidal elemental silver due to reduction of Ag+ after reaction with BH4-. The optimal performance of the experimental setup was achieved with 500 μL sample injection loops or larger and the flow rate of 0.6 mL/min. The estimated limit of detection (LOD) for silver in water was 0.01 mg/L what compares favorably with the maximum contaminant level (MCL) for silver in drinking water.