The use of smartphone and chemometric analysis for determination of tetracyclines in natural water by sensitized solid phase fluorescence of Eu on europium hydroxide

The possibility of identification and determination of tetracycline antibiotics (tetracycline, doxycycline, oxytetracycline, demeclocycline, metacycline and chlortetracycline) in natural water using digital colorimetry based on sensitized fluorescence of Eu (III) on europium hydroxide is studied. It is shown that complexes of Eu (III) with tetracyclines in an alkaline medium are adsorbed on europium hydroxide with preservation of their fluorescent properties. When the precipitate is irradiated with monochromatic ultraviolet light, pink fluorescence is observed. The colorimetric parameters of the precipitate in the RGB additive system after centrifugation were measured using a smartphone. The use of chemometric analysis provides shortening of the analysis procedure and visualizing of data obtained. The data set was processed using principal component analysis (PCA), hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), and k-means method with XLSTAT software. The additional use of chemometric methods for processing of the analytical signal contributes to an increase in the reliability of the analyte identification. The methods used in the study make it possible to quantify the content of antibiotics in water bodies. The calibration dependences in the methods of principal components and k-means have a logarithmic form and are linear in the ranges of the determined contents — 0.005 – 0.1 μg/ml (R² ≥ 0.99). The developed method for determining the total content of tetracycline antibiotics in natural waters is easy to use and is characterized by the availability of instrumentation. The environmental friendliness of this approach is attributed to a small set of inorganic salts required for concentration of the chelate complexes of tetracyclines with Eu (III) ions on europium hydroxide. The use of mobile digital technology (smartphones) and modern software products for data processing contributes to the development of rapid analysis. The approbation of the method was carried out using a sample of river water, the correctness of the analysis was proved by the spike test. The relative error of the analysis results does not exceed 15%.

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