Results and discussion
The experiments were carried out in two phases. In Phase 1, dis- tilled 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 differ- ent 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.