SELF-MODELING CURVE RESOLUTION ANALYSIS OF SYNCHRONOUS FLUORESCENCE SPECTROSCOPY DATA FOR CHARACTERIZATION OF ACID MIXTURES AND STUDY OF ACID-BASE EQUILIBRIA

Aqueous solutions of carboxylic acids and phenols at micromolar concen tration levels were analysed by synchronous fluorescence (SyF) spectro scopy. A strategy, based on provoking controlled variations in SyF spe ctra by changing the pH and treating spectral data by evolving factor analysis with specific concentration constraints, was developed and ev aluated to extract information from the SyF data to determine acid-bas e parameters for;simple acids and mixtures, The procedure was tested o n an aqueous mixture of salicylic acid, caffeic acid and catechol as w ell as on pure solutions of these and other acids.