Differential spectrophotometric determination of micro amounts of metal ions in mixtures

A differential spectrophotometric method is described for the simultaneous determinations of iron and molybdenum, iron and titanium, iron and uranium, molybdenum and titanium, and molybdenum and uranium in mixtures, in a single solution at room temperature. The general method consists in treating the mixture with 5 ml of 1 M sodium acetate and 1 ml of 1% pyrocatechol in 25-ml volumetric flasks. The optical density of color of mixed complexes is determined at the corresponding pair of wavelengths suggested. From the optical density and molar extinction coefficient, the concentration of each ion in mixtures has been calculated. By this procedure, the metal ions can be determined even if they differ by large ratios. Procedures have been extended for the analysis of mixtures containing iron, molybdenum, and titanium (or uranium). These procedures can be applied for the analysis of any type of materials, like minerals, rocks, ores, alloys, steels and refractory materials. Spectra of each complex and their Beer's law were studied in detail. Experiments were also made to show that the calculated and observed optical density of mixture complexes is the same, thereby the additive of optical density of mixtures at each pair of wavelengths suggested for individual determinations of ions have been verified.