The spectrophotometric determination of vanadium after extraction as vanadium(III) ferronate by tribenzylamine

Vanadium(III) obtained by dithionite reduction of vanadium(V) can be extracted as its ferron complex with tribenzylamine in chloroform from 0.05 M sulphuric acid. Vanadium (0–5 μg ml^-1) is determined spectrophotometrically at 430 nm with a sensitivity of 0.0028 μg V cm^-2. Al(III), Co(II), Ni(II), Fe(II, III), Hg(II), Si(IV), Be(II), Mg(II), Ca(II), Sr(II), Ba(II), Cr(VI, III), W(VI), Zn(II), U(VI), Mn(II). Pb(II), Cu(II), Cd(II) and Th(IV) do not interfere; only Mo(VI), Ti(IV), Zr(IV). Bi(V) and Sn(II) interfere. A single determination takes only 7 min. The extracted complex is V^III (R-3H.TBA)₃ where R = C₉H₄O₄NSI. The method is satisfactory for the determination of vanadium in steels, alum and other samples without preliminary separations.