The Influence of Conditioning Agent on Phosphate Diffusion Coefficient through Polyacrylamide and Agarose Gel

Abstract

Excess phosphate in natural water can cause algae to grow rapidly, and degenerate the quality of the ecosystem. Therefore, analyses or periodic observation of phosphate levels in the water is needed. One of the commonly used methods is diffusive gradient in thin films (DGT) technique. The DGT technique is based on the ability of analyte to diffuse through a gel, called diffusion coefficient. This research was conducted in order to study the effect of different storage solution for polyacrylamide and agarose gels to the phosphate diffusion coefficient through the gels. One step of the research was preparing the polyacrylamide and agarose gels. To observe the effect of different storage solutions, several gels were stored in distilled water gel while the others were stored in NaCl solution of 0.01 M. Phosphate diffusion coefficient was determined using Fick's Law and the analyses of phosphate concentration was using UV-Visible spectrophotometer. The results showed that phosphate diffusion coefficient was high when polyacrylamide and agarose gels had been stored in NaCl solution of 0.01 M.