Spectrophotometric Determination of Primary Biodegradation of Carboxylate of Alcohol Ether by Its Reaction with Safranine T

In a borate buffer medium of pH 8.6,a hydrophobic association complex was formed by the reaction of the anion of carboxylate of alcohol ether (AEC) with cation of the reagent safranine T,and the reaction product was extracted with trichloromethane and its absorbance was measured at the wavelength of 519 nm.Based on this color reaction,the primary biodegradation of AEC was studied.Detection limit (3s) of the reaction in respect to AES was found to be 0.2 mg·L-1.Those anions,i.e.acetate,Cl-,HCO-3 and SO2-4,showed no interference to the above mentioned reaction,but the anionic surfactants of SDS and LAS showed obvious influence of increasing the absorbance significantly.As shown by the experimental results,the degradation rate of AEC9 in a solution having its mass concentration as high as 100 mg·L-1,under natural condition achieved to a value of 95% after 24 h,and it was proved that AEC showed excellant primary biodegradation property.