Sensing fresh water contamination using fluorescence methods

Water quality monitoring requires characterization of a range of organic and inorganic components present within the sample. We present here initial findings in the design of a novel system to detect contaminants by characterizing their characteristic fluorescence fingerprints in a 3-dimensional excitation emission matrix. This is a proof of principle for a system that would then use principal component analysis to diagnose the individual contaminants present in real world samples. A high-resolution fluorescence spectrometer was used to characterize components and potential pollutants in water samples along with samples taken at two different times from the feed into a lake. Several types of fluorescent signals were observed including the commonly used UV `protein-like' fluorescence as well as humic-like or yellow substances fluorescence. Development of this method will lead to a technique that will allow rapid identification of possible contaminants in water samples.