Gas diffusion sequential injection system for the spectrophotometric determination of free chlorine with o-dianisidine

A gas diffusion sequential injection system for spectrophotometric determination of free chlorine is described. The detection is based in the colorimetric reaction between free chlorine and a low toxicity reagent o-dianisidine. A gas diffusion unit is used to isolate free chlorine from the sample in order to avoid possible interferences. This feature results from the conversion of free chlorine to molecular chlorine (gaseous) with sample acidification. With minor changes in the operating conditions, two different dynamic ranges were obtained enhancing the application both to water samples and bleaches. The results obtained with the developed system were compared to the reference method, iodometric titration and proved not to be statistically different. A detection limit of 0.6 mg ClO⁻/L was achieved. Repeatability was evaluated from 10 consecutive determinations being the results better than 2%. The two dynamic ranges presented different determination rates: 15 h⁻¹ for 0.6-4.8 mg ClO⁻/L (water samples) and 30 h⁻¹ for 0.047-0.188 g ClO⁻/L (bleaches).