Phosphomolybdenum Blue Detection – A Review of Characteristics, Achievements, Challenges and Future Prospects

Phosphate detection in the environment (especially, water bodies) is very essential in view of its consequent pollution effects on eutrophication. Continuous monitoring of phosphate concentration (and phosphorus compounds in general) in water samples has been based on phosphomolybdenum blue formation coupled with spectrophotometric detection. Continu­ous flow injection analyses (FIA) are well known to present numerous advantages over batch methods. Furthermore, the development of on-chip micro-channel analytical (μFIA) systems begun and have gained much attention within the last two decades in view of the striking advantages over conventional FIA techniques. This paper reviews published information on detection of phosphomolybdenum blue in conventional systems as well as on micro-chip. It reports on the challenges encountered (interference from other complex anions), the achieve­ments made so far (intereference removal by electrokinetic separation) and what the future holds (simultaneous determination).