Improvement of an old spectrophotometric method for the microdetermination of ascorbic acid by the use of a micellar medium

₃]²⁺. Whereas the initial method is carried out in an aqueous solution, the improved one employs an aqueous micellar medium formed by the cationic surfactant cetylpyridinium bromide (CPBR). The λmax in both methods is the same, i.e. 510 nm. The mean apparent molar absorptivity (ɛ) and Sandell’s sensitivity (Ss) were calculated as ɛ=2.10×10⁴ Lmol^-1 cm^-1 and Ss=8.37 ng cm^-2 for the initial procedure, and ɛ=2.62×10⁴ Lmol^-1 cm^-1 and Ss=6.72 ng cm^-2 for the improved one. The regression line equation for the improved method was: A=1.487×10^-1C −1.415×10^-2 (r=0.9998). The accuracy and the precision of the improved method were investigated and the conclusions were satisfactory. The results obtained for ASCA by both the described method and an official one, were statistically compared by means of the Student’s t-test and by the variance ratio F-test; and no significant difference was observed. Received: 15 January 1996/Revised: 7 March 1996/Accepted: 13 March 1996