Development of a Portable Total-phosphorus Monitoring System for Preventing Eutrophication in Advance

In this study, a portable total-phosphorus (TP) monitoring system utilizing a photocatalytic-reaction-based pretreatment method is proposed, fabricated, and characterized. Commercial TP monitoring systems are only used in laboratories because of their complex monitoring procedure, bulk-size, and high-cost. In particular, pretreatment in commercial TP monitoring systems is performed at high temperatures (> 120ºC) and pressure (> 1.1 kg cm^-2) making it difficult to minimize the scale of the systems. The proposed TP monitoring system employs a pretreatment method with a photocatalytic reaction; thus, its size can be reduced, as photocatalytic reactions occur at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. Analytes with various TP concentrations are pretreated using the proposed portable TP monitoring system and are quantitatively measured with an LED and a photodiode.