Advanced and Hyphenated Techniques for Nano-Level Analysis of Iron in Water

The monitoring of iron in water sources has been and will be of immense importance because modern applications require accurate and reliable results of quantification of low levels of iron in water being used in specialized fields. Although iron in drinking water supplies is found to exist in four forms, Fe(II), Fe(III), iron bacteria, and organic iron, no single method is capable of nano-level analysis of all these forms of iron. Hence, various advanced and hyphenated techniques are being used for the determination of iron species in drinking water sources that give precise and reliable results and reduce human effort. The present article reviews the new generation of equipment and a variety of modified and hyphenated instrumental techniques for iron analysis. Additionally, this review describes detection limits of widely used hyphenated techniques for quantitative analysis of four forms of iron in water down to ultratrace levels.