Contribution of compressional waves to the identification and quantification of a water contaminant

Series frequency and period of its fluctuation were both monitored in the presence of several organic pollutants in water: ethanol, acetone, tetrahydrofuran, tetrachloroethylene and chloroform. Quantification based solely on the series frequency faced some difficulties, as different compositions could give rise to the same signal. The additional information obtained by measuring the period of the signal fluctuation allowed to establish the concentration of the solution without ambiguities, and can also, in particular situations, allow to identify the pollutant. Besides, for waters contaminated with a known pollutant in low concentrations, when ambiguity in concentration range is not an issue, sometimes, higher sensitivity was obtained measuring the wave periodicity rather than the series frequency of oscillation.