Spectrophotometric determination of micro amounts of nitrite in water and soil

A spectrophotometric method for determination of micro amounts of nitrite in water and soil with p-aminoacetophenone and resorcinol is described. The interference of foreign ions can be eliminated by masking with complexing agents. Beer's law is obeyed up to 20 mug of NO(2)(-) in 60 ml of solution and the molar absorptivity at 435 nm is 5.27 x 10(4) l.mole(-1).cm(-1). The colour is stable for 10 hr. Results obtained by using the proposed method for water and soil samples agree well with those obtained by the Saltzman standard method.