Novel use of a fiber-optic-based on-line trichloroethylene sensor in a column retardation experiment.

A newly developed fiber-optic-based trichloroethylene (TCE) sensor previously described [F.P. Milanovich, S.B. Brown, B.W. Colston, Jr., P.F. Daley and K. Langry, Talanta, 41 (1994) 2189], was used to provide analyses of TCE in laboratory tests of retardation of TCE in ground water. The sensor enabled inexpensive real time analyses of TCE in retardation tests conducted in a sand-filled flow-through column. The simultaneous data analysis of TCE, (18)O and Cl(-) breakthrough curves enabled the calculation of an estimated retardation coefficient which was found to be in good agreement with that predicted by the octanol/water partitioning K(d) method. The fiber-optic sensor was demonstrated to be a fast and reliable method for conducting on-line laboratory analyses of TCE at the parts per billion level in a small volume of contaminated water, thus providing excellent temporal resolution of the data as well as minimizing volatile losses during sample collection and analysis.