Polarographic determination of copper, arsenic and arsenic in copper arsenite

A method is proposed in which Cu^II, As^III and As^v can be determined in copper arsenite without prior separation. It is based on the fact that Cu^II and As^III yield prominent, distinguishable, widely-separated cathodic polarographic waves in a 0.1M LiCl-0.01M EDTA—0.001M LiOH solution using a dropping mercury electrode, whereas As^v does not give a wave in this medium. The As^v is determined by difference after reduction with sulphurous acid.     

Electrochemical masking of large amounts of copper in dpasv and the determination of thallium in the presence of a large excess of copper

The influence of the following surfactants on the peak of copper in 0.2M EDTA at pH 4.5 was investigated: polyoxyethylated alkylphenols having an average of 3 and 9.5 ethylene oxide units; polyoxyethylene alcohols having 4 and 7 ethylene oxide units; poly(ethylene glycols) having M.W. 4000, 9000 and 20000; hexadecyltributylphosphonium bromide (HDTBPB), tetraphenylphosphonium bromide (TPPB),N,N,N,N,N',N',N-examethylhexamethylenediammonium bromide (HMB), benzyl(di-isobutylphenoxyethoxy) dimethylammonium chloride (Hyamine 1622), hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (HDTMAB), hexadecyldimethylbenzylammonium chloride (HDDMBAC) and tetrabutylammonium chloride (TBAC). HDDMBAC, as well as all the substances examined which contained an ethylene oxide chain, completely suppressed the copper peak. HDTBPB and TPPB partially suppressed the peak, whereas HDTMAB, HMB and Hyamine 1622 enhanced it. TBAC was without effect. In 0.2M EDTA at pH 4.5 containing TBAC at 0.01M concentration and 10 ppm of Rokafenol N-3, Cu(II), Pb(II) and Bi(III) can be tolerated at concentrations of up to 0.05M, the height of the thallium peak being unaffected. The precision of the determination (3–10%) and the recovery are satisfactory. A 10³-fold ratio of Fe(III) to Tl(I) does not interfere with the determination.     

Determination of silver in ores, concentrates, zinc process solutions, copper metal and copper-base alloys by atomic-absorption spectrophotometry after separation by extraction of the tribenzylamine-silver bromide complex

A method for determining 0.1 μg/g or more of silver in ores and concentrates and 0.001 μg/ml or more of silver in zinc process solutions is described. Silver is separated from the matrix elements by chloroform extraction of the tribenzylamine—silver bromide ion-association complex from 0.08M potassium bromide—2M sulphuric acid and stripped with 9M hydrobromic acid. This solution is evaporated to dryness and organic material is destroyed with nitric and perchloric acids. Silver is determined by atomic-absorption spectrophotometry in an air—acetylene flame, at 328.1 nm, in a 10% v/v hydrochloric acid—1% v/v diethylenetriamine medium. Cadmium, bismuth and molybdenum are partly co-extracted but do not interfere. The method is also applicable to copper metal and copper-base alloys. Results obtained by this method are compared with those obtained by a fire-assay/atomic-absorption method.     

Experimental and computational study of species formed during electrochemical stripping oxidation of copper in chloride media determination of copper(II) in the ng l(-1) range by stripping potentiometry

A novel glassy carbon electrode design, permitting medium exchange in batch mode without loss of electrode potential control, has been used for the study of copper(I) and copper(II) species formed during constant current stripping oxidation of copper in chloride media. It was found that copper(II) species dominated at chloride concentrations below about 1 mM and that soluble copper(I) species dominated at chloride concentrations above about 100 mM. In the concentration range 1-100 mM, soluble copper(I) and copper(II) species are formed as well as solid copper(I) chloride, the latter giving rise to a split peak as it is further oxidised to copper(II). The experimental results agreed satisfactorily with computer calculated equilibria data using the haltafall program. The medium exchange procedure has, furthermore, been used for the determination of copper(II) in seawater reference samples, 7.5 M ammonium acetate/2.5 M acetic acid being used as stripping medium. The detection limit, after 15 min of electrolysis, was found to be 6 ng l(-1) (0.10 mM) and the relative precision 6-10%.     

A rapid and mercury pollution-free redoximetry determination of total iron in copper ore

A rapid and mercury pollution-free method for the determination of total iron in the presence of copper is described. The sample was decomposed either by an acid attack of hydrochloric acid-nitric acid (1 + 2) or by fusion with sodium peroxide. The ferric ion in the sample solution was amenable to direct reduction to ferrous ion with potassium borohydride in sulphuric acid medium under the catalysis of cupric ion, followed by titration with potassium dichromate using sodium diphenylaminesulfonate as an indicator. After reduction, the iron (II) in the solution was stable for 300 min. The proposed method is free of interference from copper and has been successfully used for the large-scale routine determination of total iron in copper ores showing the same or better degree of precision and accuracy as those obtained by the classic standard stannous chloride-mercuric chloride method with the separation of iron from copper.     

Traveling fronts of copper deposition

We report the experimental observation of traveling fronts during the electroless deposition of copper on passive steel substrates. The low-carbon steel samples are passivated in nitric acid prior to the plating experiment, thus creating a thin, protective oxide layer on the steel surface. The deposition experiments are carried out from slightly acidic (pH 3.2) copper sulfate solution and copper nitrate solution with the latter showing front propagation only in the presence of chloride ions. For up to 30 s, fronts propagate with constant velocities in the range from 0.5 to 5 mm/s depending on the experimental conditions. This phase of constant-speed propagation gives way to accelerating fronts and very rapid, spatially unstructured deposition. Front-mediated plating is observed over a wide range of cupric ion concentration and constitutes a striking and unexpected example for pattern formation in electrochemical systems.     

Catalytic determination of molybdenum(VI) by means of an iodide ion-selective electrode and a landolt-type hydrogen peroxide-iodide reaction

A trace amount of molybdenum(VI) can be determined by using its catalytic effect on the oxidation of iodide to iodine by hydrogen peroxide in acidic medium. Addition of ascorbic acid added to the reaction mixture produces the Landolt effect, i.e., the iodine produced by the indicator reaction is reduced immediately by the ascorbic add. Hence the concentration of iodide begins to decrease once all the ascorbic acid has been consumed. The induction period is measured by monitoring the concentration of iodide ion with an iodide ion-selective electrode. The reciprocal of the induction period varies linearly with the concentration of molybdenum(VI). The most suitable pH and concentrations of hydrogen peroxide and potassium iodide are found to be 1.5, 5 and 10mM, respectively. An appropriate amount of ascorbic acid is added to the reaction mixture according to the concentration of molybdenum(VI) in the sample solution. A calibration graph with good proportionality is obtained for the molybdenum(VI) concentration range from 0.1 to 160 μM. Iron(III), vanadium(IV), zirconium(IV), tungsten(VI), copper(II) and chromium(VI) interfere, but iron(III) and copper(II) can be masked with EDTA.     

The detection of nitrate using in-situ copper nanoparticle deposition at a boron doped diamond electrode.

Electrochemical deposition from a 0.1 M sodium sulphate solution, containing Cu2+ (adjusted to pH 3 with hydrochloric acid) produced a well defined copper nanoparticle deposit on the surface of a boron doped diamond electrode. Changing conditions such as potential (-0.8, -1.0 and -1.2 V), time (5, 2 and 0.5 s) and concentration of Cu2+ (500, 250 and 100 microM) was found to give copper nanoparticles of varying size and particle density. The electrocatalytic properties of the copper surface towards nitrate reduction were explored. An in-situ copper nanoparticle production method was developed for the detection of nitrate; this involves electrodeposition, followed by linear sweep voltammetry for the reduction of nitrate and then application of a stripping potential to renew the electrode surface. The linear sweep was discovered to have homogenised the size of the nanoparticles but their number density was still dependant on the initial conditions of deposition. Some particles were still present at the surface after the stripping potential had been applied but repetitions of the procedure showed these did not have an effect on subsequent deposits. Optimisation of the method lead to applying a deposition potential of -0.8 V, at a BDD electrode for 5 s in a 0.1 M sodium sulphate solution (pH 3) containing 100 microM Cu2+ followed by a linear sweep at 1 V/s; this yielded a limit of detection of 1.5 microM nitrate. The analytical applicability of the technique was evaluated for nitrate detection in a natural mineral water sample and was found to agree well with that stated by the manufacturer.     

Coulometric titration of iron by electrolytically generated bromine

Iron^II reacts with bromine more smoothly in acetic acid-sodium acetate medium than in sulphuric acid medium, producing a marked potential change at the end-point. The titration curves and the reaction velocities of the reaction have been studied with regard to various compositions of the electrolytic solution. It was found that iron^IIfrom 0.01 meq to 0.1 meq could be titrated coulometrically with less than about 1% error, if the electrolytic solution contained 0.1M potassium bromate, 1N acetic acid and 0.2N sodium hydroxide.     

A lead(II) ion selective electrode via a metal complex of poly(hydroxamic acid)

A new lead(II) electrode has been constructed with poly(hydroxamic acid) (PHXA) as the active material and silicone rubber as the supporting material. The electrode gave near Nerstian response over the concentration range 4 × 10⁻⁵−1 × 10⁻²M lead(II). The detection limit of the electrode is approximately 4 × 10⁻⁶M and the electrode works well in the pH range 4.5–6.0. The response time was 50–120 sec over the whole concentration range and the electrode has a working life of at least 4 weeks. Iron(III) severely poisoned the electrode membrane. Nickel(II) and mercury(II) gave very strong interference compared to copper(II), silver(I), cobalt(II), sodium(I), potassium(I), zinc(II) and cadmium(II) which gave some or little interference. Values determined with atomic absorption (AAS) and a commercial lead(II) electrode were in good agreement with those measured with the lead(II) electrode reported here.     

Photometric determination of copper with N-(dithiocarboxy)sarcosine after preconcentration with amberlite xad-2 resin

The copper(II) chelate of N-(dithiocarboxy)sarcosine (DTCS) is sorbed on a column of Amberlite XAD-2 resin from a pH-7 phosphate solution (0.1M) and stripped with a pH-9.0 ammonia solution (0.2M) in 60% methanol. The absorbance of the eluted chelate is measured at 432 nm against water. Sodium nitrilotriacetate, sodium tripolyphosphate, and EDTA can be used to mask interfering metal ions other than mercury(II), the resulting complexes not being sorbed on the resin. The mercury(II) chelate of DTCS is also sorbed on and stripped from the column along with the copper chelate, but does not interfere in the photometric determination of copper, because it is colourless. The recovery of copper(II) is quantitative from test solutions (50–500 ml) of any salinity up to that of sea-water. Concentration factors of up to about 20 are obtained. The method is highly selective for copper and can be applied to its determination in sea-water.     

Processing of signals from an ion-elective electrode array by a neural network

Neural network software is described for processing the signals of arrays of ion-selective electrodes. The performance of the software was tested in the simultaneous determination of calcium and copper(II) ions in binary mixtures of copper(II) nitrate and calcium chloride and the simultaneous determination of potassium, calcium, nitrate and chloride in mixtures of potassium and calcium chlorides and ammonium nitrate. The measurements for the Ca²⁺/Cu²⁺ determinations were done with a pH-glass electrode and calcium and copper ion-selective electrodes; results were accurate to ±8%. For the K⁺/Ca²⁺NO^?₃/Cl^? determinations, the measurements were made with the relevant ion-selective electrodes and a glass electrode; the mean relative error was ±6%, and for the worst cases the error did not exceed 20%.     

Ion chromatography of nitrite at the ppb level with photometric measurement of iodine formed by post-column reaction of nitrite with iodide

The difficulty in ion-chromatographic determination of nitrite in aqueous solutions containing a high concentration of chloride arises mainly from incomplete resolution of the peaks for these anions on the separation column whose efficiency is not high. A photometric measurement of iodine formed by a reaction of nitrite with iodide has been found to make it possible to determine, chromatographically, trace amounts of nitrite without any interference from chloride; chloride does not oxidize iodide to produce iodine. The proposed method was based on the separation of nitrite from matrix anions on a silica-based anion-exchange column with a 1.5·10⁻³ M phthalate eluent (pH 5.0), followed by photometric measurement of the iodine (as triiodide) formed via a post-column reaction of the separated nitrite with iodide. The optimal conditions for the post-column reaction were established by varying the concentrations of iodide, copper(II) and nitric acid in a post-column-reaction solution and the length of a reaction tube. A calibration graph for nitrite, plotted as peak heights versus concentrations, was linear up to 1.50·10⁻⁵ M (690 ppb). The detection limit, defined at S/N=3, was 1.00·10⁻⁷ M (4.60 ppb) nitrite. The presence of chloride ions up to 0.01 M did not give any interference to the determination of nitrite. This method was successfully applied to the determination of nitrite in lake water, river water, sewage works water and snow samples without any pretreatment.     

离子选择电极法测定水中氯含量

采用离子选择电极法建立了一种对水中氯进行测定的方法。通过加入柠檬酸三钠-硝酸钾作为总离子强度调节剂,以氢氧化钠与硝酸调节溶液的pH值为5左右,用离子计测量氯离子的电位值,并用格氏作图法于半对数曲线查得氯含量,提高了测量的稳定性、灵敏性和准确性。水中氯的测定范围为5～50μg/mL,加标回收率为93%～105%。     

Galvanic cell without liquid junction for potentiometric determination of copper

This paper describes potentiometric measurements in an integrated galvanic cell with both indicator and reference electrodes. Both electrodes are conducting polymer-based. The copper-sensitive indicator electrode is made by using poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) doped with 2-(o-arsenophenylazo)-1,8-dihydroxynaphthalene-3,6-disulphonic sodium salt (Arsenazo-I) as the electroactive substance in the film, while the reference electrode is based on PEDOT doped by 2-morpholineoethanesulfonic acid (MES). It is shown that the galvanic cell can be used for determination of copper both in non-aqueous media (where all PVC-based membranes failed) and in the presence of chloride ions, which disturb the signal of conventional copper ion-selective electrodes with solid-state membranes. It is further shown that the titration of copper ions can be successfully monitored using the described electrochemical cell.     

Iodometric determination of peroxydiphosphate in the presence of copper(II) or iron(II) as catalyst

Peroxydiphosphate can be determined iodometrically in the presence of a large excess of potassium iodide with copper(II) or iron(II) as catalyst through the operation of the Cu(II)/Cu(I) or Fe(II)/Fe(III) cycle. The method is applicable in HClO(4), H(2)SO(4), HCl and CH(3)COOH acid media in the range 0.1-1.0M studied. Nickel, manganese(II), cobalt(II), silver, chloride and phosphate are without effect.     

Studies on bis(crown ether)-based ion-selective electrodes for the potentiometric determination of sodium and potassium in serum

Bis(crown ether)-based ion-selective electrodes for sodium and potassium are described, based on the bis[(12-crown-4)-2-ylmethyl]-2-dodecyl-2-methyl malonate sensor(I) for sodium and the bis[(benzo-15-crown-5)-15-ylmethyl] pimelate sensor(II) for potassium. The best results were obtained when the sensors were used in association with 2-nitrophenyl octyl ether as plasticising solvent mediator and potassium tetrakis(4-chlorophenyl)borate as anion excluder in poly(vinyl chloride) matrices. Electrode slopes were near-Nernstian, with detection limits of less than 10(-5) M. The electrode features are compared with those of a sodium glass membrane electrode, for sensor I, and with a valinomycin-based potassium electrode, for sensor II. The electrodes are also discussed in relation to others reported for sensors I and II and are shown to be superior. However, although the electrodes described offer promising alternatives to glass electrodes for sodium and valinomycin electrodes for potassium, data for sodium and potassium measurements in blood serum indicate a need for further research in order to improve the correlation with flame photometric measurements.     

Separation of bismuth from lead, copper and other elements by means of anion exchange

The anion-exchange behaviour of bismuth and various other elements has been investigated in media consisting of methyl glycol and nitric acid. Through the determination of the distribution coefficients in such mixtures, a method for the anion-exchange separation of bismuth from many metal ions has been developed. A mixture of 90% methyl glycol and 10% 5M nitric acid is a suitable medium for this separation on the strongly-basic anion exchanger Dowex 1, X8. Only bismuth, thorium and lanthanum are strongly retained on the resin in these conditions. All other elements investigated, such as lead, copper, iron, etc., are either only weakly adsorbed or are not absorbed. By means of this ion-exchange procedure, a series of analyses of copper-base alloys for bismuth has been carried out. The results show that this method can be used successfully for the quantitative isolation of bismuth from such materials. The final determination of bismuth in the eluates is performed by complexometric titration.     

Voltammetric measurement of copper(II)/organic interactions in estuarine waters

The voltammetry of copper in organic ligand/chloride media is dominated by the formation of CuCl^?₂ species and by induced adsorption of Cu(I) in organic coatings on the electrodes. These phenomena are utilised in a novel method for evaluating Cu(II)/organic ligand interactions, based on the principle of ligand exchange. The Cu(II)/organic species competes with glycine which forms copper glycinate. These two complexes can be distinguished voltammetrically: copper glycinate gives a higher surface excess of copper at a gelatin-coated hanging mercury drop electrode, partly because of the increased production of CuCl^?₂ from copper glycinate at the electrode surface. The method proved satisfactory for pure ligand/surfactant/chloride media and for estuarine waters. It is shown that there are two type of Cu(II)-binding ligand in estuarine waters: humic material (> 10^?6 mol l^?1, assuming 1:1 site binding) with polyelectrolyte-type binding, and discrete ligands (? 10^?6 M) with stability constants around 10⁹. The extent of Cu(II) binding by the humic material decreases down the estuary because of dilution and increased salinity.     

A liquid-state copper(II) ion-selective electrode containing a complex of Cu(II) with salicylaniline

A new liquid-state ion-selective electrode based on a complex of Cu(II) with salicylaniline is described. The electrode shows linear dependence of potential on the activity of Cu(2+) in the range from 5 x 10(-6) to 0.1M, with a slope of 28.3 mV/pCu at 18 degrees . The electrode shows a better selectivity relative to Ag(I) and Hg(II) than other copper(II) ion-selective electrodes. The possibilities for using the electrode for determination of copper in the presence of interfering cations are described.