Complexometric Determination of Mercury(II) Using 2-Mercaptopropionylglycine as a Selective Masking Reagent

 A selective complexometric method for the determination of mercury(II) in the presence of associated metal ions is reported, based on the selective masking ability of 2-mercaptopropionylglycine (MPGH₂) towards mercury. Mercury, along with other associated metal ions, is first complexed with excess of EDTA and the surplus EDTA is back titrated at pH 5–6 (hexamine buffer) with standard zinc sulfate solution using xylenol orange as indicator. An aqueous 1% solution of MPGH₂ is then added to displace EDTA selectively from the Hg-EDTA complex and the released EDTA is titrated with the same standard zinc sulfate solution. Reproducible and accurate results are obtained for 4–85 mg of mercury with a relative error of ≤ 0.26% and coefficient of variation not exceeding 0.42%. The interferences of various cations and anions are studied. The method is used for the analysis of mercury in its complexes and alloy samples. Received August 30, 2000. Revision January 15, 2001.