Temperature impact on monochloramine, free ammonia, and free chlorine indophenol methods

Abstract

A commercial colorimetric indophenol (IP) method is used for determining monochloramine (NH2Cl) concentrations for process control in chloraminated public water systems and chloramine–related research. The NH2Cl – IP method excludes some quality control procedures typically included in drinking water methods and is not approved by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) for compliance monitoring. Therefore, the authors developed and validated a more complete NH2Cl–IP method, building on the commercial technique, as a candidate for future approval. During method development, temperature impact on color development was investigated. Color development time increased as temperature decreased. Below 20 °C, times needed for full color development were greater than those reported in the commercial method, reaching nearly three times longer at 5 °C. This observed temperature dependence also applies to free ammonia and free chlorine indophenol methods. To avoid measurement errors of samples analyzed below 20 °C, use of reaction times determined in this study is recommended for these indophenol methods.