Kinetic and mechanistic study of the chlorpromazine-hydrogen peroxide reaction for the catalytic spectrophotometric determination of iodide

Extensive kinetic studies were performed to investigate the mechanism of the chlorpromazine (CP)-hydrogen peroxide reaction utilized in the catalytic determination of iodide. This reaction proceeds by two independent, parallel reactions, one through the formation of a red free radical, another directly to form the colorless product. The red color formation is catalyzed by traces of iodide. The color formation reaction was followed by measuring the increase in absorbance at 525 nm and its kinetic investigations were carried out by the initial rate method. The reaction rate curves for colorless sulfoxide formation were obtained by following the increase in absorbance at 335 nm, and the analysis was carried out by the integration method. The disappearance rate of CP is given by -d[CP]dt = k₃[I⁻[H₂O₂][H⁺] + k₆[CP][H₂O₂][H⁺] + k₉[CP][H₂O₂][H⁺] + k₁₀[CP][H₂O₂], where the first and second terms correspond to the chromogenic reaction and the third and fourth to colorless sulfoxide formation. Mechanisms consistent with each term were proposed and analytical implications of the kinetic studies are discussed.