Application of Multivariate Calibration Methods for the Simultaneous Multiwavelength Spectrophotometric Determination of Fe(II), Cu(II), Zn(II), and Mn(II) in Mixtures

Abstract

A sensitive method for the simultaneous spectrophotometric determination of Fe(II), Cu(II), Zn(II), and Mn(II) in mixtures has been developed with the aid of multivariate calibration methods, such as classical least squares (CLS), principal component regression (PCR) and partial least squares (PLS). The method is based on the spectral differences of the analytes in their complexation reaction with 4‐(2‐pyridylazo)‐resorcinol (PAR) and the use of full spectra with wavelengths in the range of 300–600 nm. It was found that both the spectral positive and negative bands obtained against the PAR blank, are proportional to the concentration for each metal complex. The obtained linear calibration concentration ranges are 0.025–0.6, 0.05–0.8, 0.025–0.8, and 0.05–0.8 µg ml^?1 for Fe(II), Cu(II), Zn(II), and Mn(II), respectively, and the LODs for the four metal ions were found to be approximately 1–3×10^?2 µg ml^?1. The proposed method was applied to a verification set of synthetic mixtures of these four metal ions, with models built in three different wavelength ranges, i.e., 300–450, 450–600, and 300–600 nm, corresponding to the positive, negative bands and their combinations, respectively. It was shown that the PLS model for the 300–600 nm range gave the best results (RPE_T=6.9% and average recovery ～100%; cf. PCR: RPE_T=9.5% and average Recovery ～110%). This method was also successfully applied for the determination of the four metal ions in pharmaceutical preparations, chicken feedstuff, and water samples.