Application of Raman Spectroscopy to Detecting Organic Contaminant in Water

Organic contaminants are harmful to body health, and are usually contained in waste water, so it is necessary to determine and monitor them. The demand for real-time analysis and online examination of organic contaminants in water has presented a challenge to analytical and physical chemist. Raman Spectroscopy is a molecular vibrational spectroscopic technique, and Raman effect is caused by interactions of molecule and photon and shows the information in molecules. Because the Raman spectra of different molecules are much more distinct, they provides characteristic of the molecule. Especially, Raman spectra of the solutes are unaffected by the water, therefore the weak scattering of water makes the technique well suited to analyzing aqueous contaminants. The paper firstly introduced Raman spectroscopy, and then analyzed and assigned the Raman spectra of five kinds of organic contaminants and their mixture. The results showed that Raman spectroscopy is a powerful technique for analyzing aqueous solutions of organic contaminants.