Trifluoroethylxanthate as an Analytical Reagent: AAS of Zinc,Antimony and Lead After Coprecipitation of Their Trifluoroethylxanthates onto Microcyrstalline Naphthalene

Abstract

A sensitive method has been developed for the direct atomic absorption spectrometric determination of zinc, antimony and lead after coprecipitation of their trifluoroethylxanthates onto microcrystalline naphthalene. The metal xanthates are quantitatively coprecipitated over the pH ranges: Zn, 5.9–8.4; Sb, 4.0–6.0 and Pb, 4.0–11.0. The solid mass consisting of the metal complex and naphthalene is dissolved in DMF. This solution is aspirated into an air-acetylene flame at 213.9, 217.6 and 217.0nm for Zn, Sb and Pb, respectively. Beer's law is obeyed in the concentration range 2–50, 3–90 and 5–60 μg of Zn, Sb and Pb, respectively in 10ml of the final DMF solution. RSDs are at the ± (0.5–0.6)% level (n=10). The concentration for 1% absorption is 0.019, 0.035 and 0.060μg/ml for Zn, Sb and Pb, respectively. The method is suitable for the preconcentration of the metals from a larger volume of the aqueous phase, and has been employed for their determination in standard reference materials. It may be employed for the simultaneous determination of Zn, Pb and Sb in a solution by pH control.