It is known that the analysis of the water quality is long time procedure and requires expensive analytical equipment. We offer fast (less than 10 minutes) and an effective method of water quality monitoring using the developed method for measuring the refractive index based on the phenomenon of surface plasmon resonance (SPR).

We used optically active additive to water for improve the sensitivity. This has allowed an order of magnitude greater sensitivity of the optical method for monitoring water (Fig. 1).

The measurements were performed on spectrometer SPR "Plasmon-6" series "Plasmon" created at the V. Lashkaryov Institute of Semiconductor Physics National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Figure 2).

Today we prepared patent of Ukraine on a created know-how.
Figure 1. The influence of the optically active additive to various water samples on their value of the refractive index on the 4th, 5th and 6th minute (blue line - redistilled purified deionized water, dotted line - distilled water, red curve - bottled drinking water)

The observed effect of increasing the efficiency of water quality monitoring presumably associated with the interaction of optically active additive with the cluster structure of water.

Figure 2. The device "Plasmon-6", created in the V. Lashkaryov Institute of Semiconductor Physics National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine