Determination of trace molybdenum in vegetable and food samples by spectrophotometry with p-carboxyphenylfluorone

A new highly sensitive and selective chromogenic reagent, p-carboxyphenylfluorone (p-CPF), was studied for spectrophotometric determination of trace molybdenum. In 0.36 mol L(-1)phosphoric acid medium, p-CPF reacts with molybdenum(VI) to form a 1:3 red complex, which has a sensitive absorption peak at 531 nm. Under optimal conditions, the reaction of molybdenum(VI) with p-CPF completed rapidly and absorbance remains almost constant for at least 24 h. Molybdenum(VI) obeyed Beer's law in the range 0-2.0 microg mL(-1); the apparent molar absorption coefficient, Sandell's sensitivity and the limit of detection were found to be 1.03 x 10(5) L mol(-1) cm(-1), 1.028 ng cm(-2)and 0.73 ng mL(-1) respectively; the effect of various foreign ions were examined in detail. It was found that most coexisting ions can be tolerated in considerable amounts, especially 800 mg of Mn(II), 200 mg of Mg(II), Fe(II), Co(III), Ni(II) and Cd(II), 50 mg of Ca(II) and Al(III), 25 mg of Cu(II) and Fe(III), 10 mg of Hg (II), La(III), Bi(III), Pb(II) and Zn(II) don't interfere with the determination of molybdenum(VI). The proposed method is very simple, sensitive and selective, it has been applied to determine molybdenum in vegetable and food samples with a very high precision and accuracy. Moreover, the synthesis of the reagent and the conditions of the colour reaction were also studied in detail.