A surrogate to BOD has been developed using a resazurin derivative which reveals the extent of oxygen uptake by micro-organisms for organic matter mineralization. A cross-validation performed on 109 samples in Europe and the United-States showed a strict statistical equivalence between results from both methods.
An electrode has been developed based on the luminescence emission of a photo-active chemical compound and the quenching of that emission by oxygen. This quenching photophysics mechanism is described by the Stern–Volmer equation for dissolved oxygen in a solution:
* : Luminescence in the presence of oxygen
* : Luminescence in the absence of oxygen
* : Stern-Volmer constant for oxygen quenching
* : Dissolved oxygen concentration
The determination of oxygen concentration by luminescence quenching has a linear response over a broad range of oxygen concentrations and has excellent accuracy and reproducibility.