Simultaneous flow injection determination of iron(III) and vanadium(V) and of iron(III) and chromium(VI) based on redox reactions

A flow injection analysis (FIA) method is presented for the simultaneous determinations of iron(III)-vanadium(V) and of iron(III)-chromium(VI) using a single spectrophotometric detector. In the presence of 1,10-phenanthroline (phen), iron(III) is easily reduced by vanadium(IV) to iron(II), followed by the formation of a red iron(II)-phen complex (lambda(max) = 510 nm), which shows a positive FIA peak at 510 nm corresponding to the concentration of iron(III). On the other hand, in the presence of diphosphate the reductions of vanadium(V) and/or chromium(VI) with iron(II) occur easily because the presence of diphosphate causes an increase in the reducing power of iron(II). In this case iron(II) is consumed during the reaction and a negative FIA peak at 510 nm corresponding to the concentration of vanadium(V) and/or chromium(VI) is obtained. The proposed method makes it possible to obtain both positive (for iron(III)) and negative (for vanadium(V) or chromium(VI)) FIA peaks with a single injection.