Extraction and spectrophotometric determination of vanadium(V) with ferron

Various metal complexes of 7-iodo-8-hydroxyquinoline-5-sulphonic acid (ferron) were found to be selectively extracted into immiscible alcohols. Vanadium(V) is almost completely extracted into n-butanol in a single extraction from solutions which are 0.05 M in sulphuric acid. A sensitive and selective spectrophotometric method can be based on this extraction. Beer's law is obeyed up to 15.3 μg of vanadium per ml; the sensitivity of the color reaction is 0.011 μg of vanadium per cm² at 430 mμ. The interference of iron(III) can be eliminated by adding excess pyrophosphate. The extracted species appears to contain vanadium, ferron and n-butanol in the ratio 1:2:4.