Spectrophotometric determination of microgram amounts of platinum

2-Ethyl-10-[3-(dimethylamino-2-methyl)propyl]phenothiazine hydrochloride (ethylisobutrazine hydrochloride) forms an orange-red complex with platinum(IV) at room temperature (26 ± 2 °C) in hydrochloric acid-sodium acetate buffer medium containing copper(II) ions. The complexation is complete within 10 min. The complex exhibits an absorption maximum at 529 nm with a molar absorptivity of 1.90 × 10⁴ liters mol^?1 cm^?1. Beer's law is obeyed over the concentration range 0.4–7.8 ppm of platinum. A 50-fold molar excess of the chromogenic reagent is necessary for the development of maximum color intensity. Job's method of continuous variation, the molar-ratio method, and the slope-ratio method indicate a 1:1 composition for the complex. The effects of pH, time, temperature, reagent concentration, order of addition of reagents, and interference of various ions are reported. The reagent has also been used successfully for the determination of platinum in minerals and alloys.