Improved method for shipboard determination of iron in seawater by flow injection analysis

A flow injection analysis (FIA) catalytic spectrophotometric method for the determination of dissolved iron in seawater was further developed to yield a more sensitive assay with a low detection limit. The method employs an initial sample acidification step followed by an iron pre-concentration step involving an in-line 8-hydroxy-quinoline (8-HQ) metal-chelating resin column. The copper capacity and elution efficiency, as well as the iron FIA performance of three trace-metal clean resins were compared, resulting in the selection of a clean silica gel support for the 8-HQ ligand. The concentrated sample is eluted from the resin with an acidic carrier and mixed with reagents, initiating an iron-catalyzed, color-forming reaction. Increasing the reaction temperature from 18 to 30 °C doubled the sensitivity; reaction temperature control was necessary to obtain good reproducibility in the field. Reagent blanks were as low as 0.05 nM and a detection limit of 0.016 nM was obtained from three times the S.D. of a 0.06 nM seawater sample repeated six times. A 0.06 nM detection limit was calculated from shipboard experiments where total dissolved iron was determined for 10 different samples from the same station. The instrumental sensitivity and precision evolved to the point where the blank associated with the technique is the major factor influencing its detection limit.