Fluorimetric kinetic method for the determination of total ascorbic acid with o-phenylenediamine

A fluorimetric reaction-rate method for the determination of L-ascorbic acid (AA) in aqueous solution is presented. The technique is based on the rapid oxidation of AA by mercury(II) chloride to dehydro-L-ascorbic acid, which then reacts with o-phenylenediamine to form a fluorescent quinoxaline. The formation of the product is monitored fluorimetrically with a data acquisition system based on a microcomputer, a voltage-to-frequency converter and a timer-counter board. The initial rate is estimated with a fixed-time computational method. With a 20-s measurement time (after a 5-s delay from initiation of the reaction), the detection limit for AA is 0.02 μg ml^?1 with a linear dynamic range extending to 10 μg ml^?. The procedure is applied to the determination of the AA in vitamin pills and juice. The relative standard deviation is 1.9% or better.