The paper has investigated destruction of anionic surfactants—sodium dodecylsulfate and dodecylsulfonate in a water medium under the impact of the corona discharge and vacuum ultraviolet radiation (185 nm). We established kinetic characteristics of destruction of the processes being studied. Experimentally it was proved that high values of the concentration of total organic carbon being observed at treatment by plasma and vacuum UV-radiation may be stipulated by determined by recombination of carbonate radicals being formed into organic peroxides or oxalate–anions.

The paper has investigated the possibility of using preliminary treatment of polyurethane tablets by organic solvents for determination of anionic SAS. A technique has been developed of their sorption-photometric determination in waters with a detection limit 0.004–0.144 mg/dm3 depending on the wave length.

Colloid-chemical properties of humic acids in aqueous solutions have been studied as functions of their concentration, medium pH, and counterion nature. It has been established that, at pH < 4, Na-form humic acids exist in aqueous solutions as 30–120-nm aggregates. At pH > 4, the state of humic acids depends on the solution concentration. At low concentrations, they exist as individual molecules; as the concentration is increased, they associate to form supramolecular structures at 5 mg/dm 3 and micelles at 8 g/dm 3 . An increase in the counterion charge has been shown to decrease the critical concentration of supramolecular structuring. Supramolecular structures have increased adsorbability on clay minerals and promote the manifestation of solubilizing properties of humic acids in solutions even at a concentration of 5 mg/dm 3 , which is three orders of magnitude lower than the critical micelle concentration (8 g/dm 3 ).

The estimation of possible applications of the standard extraction-photometric method for determining anionic SAS by using methylene blue has been performed during the analysis of dyed natural waters. It is shown that humic acids significantly affect the adequate determination of anionic SAS by the specified method. The ways of eliminating the harmful influence of humic acids during the analysis of natural objects are also proposed.

The interaction of anionic SAS with water-soluble humic substances has been studied. The quantitative characteristics of this interaction (binding constants) were calculated and the impact of various factors on the specified interaction was estimated. The binding of anionic SAS by humic substances was found to depend on the contact duration, ambient temperature, concentration, the nature, and size of molecules of humic substances, and also on the nature and length of the hydrocarbon radical of ASAS molecules.

We have studied sorption on the SDB-L polymer sorbent of anionic surface-active substances (ASAS) of the alkylsulfate class with a different length of a hydrocarbon radical and alkylarylsulfonates (sulfanol), methylene blue in the presence and absence of ASAS. We have developed the technique of sorption-photometric determination of the latter in waters with determination limit, which depends on ASAS hydrophobicity and constituting for C10-0.046, C12, C16-0.020–0.024, and sulfanol-0.010 mg/dm3 at the sample volume 25 cm3.

The adsorption of Crystal Violet, anionic surfactants, and their ion associates on nonionic hydrophobic polymer adsorbent Amberlite XAD-16 was studied. A procedure for the sorption-photometric determination of anionic surfactants in water was developed with a detection limit of 0.001–0.003 mg/L at a sample volume of 50 mL.