Results and discussion
The experiments were carried out in two phases. In Phase 1, distilled
water was used to establish the minimum detection limits and
observe the differences in the absorbance spectra of seven polymers.
In Phase 2, a range of water and wastewater samples were used to
establish the minimum detection limits for three polymers in different
water matrices. During the testing, polymer concentrations were
varied between 0.05 mg/L and 20 mg/L, and detection limits were
established at 191.5, 200 and 210 nm