Spectrophotometric determination of thorium with Xylenol Orange and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide

The thorium-Xylenol Orange reaction sensitized by cetyltrimethylammonium bromide ( = 5.51 x 10(4) l.mole(-1).cm(-1)) is accompanied by a bathochromic shift from 570 to 600 nm. The system is more selective than the binary system, because the reaction pH is lowered from 4.0 to 2.5; Beer's law is obeyed for 0.04-4.00 ppm of thorium.