Rapid spectrophotometric determination of cerium(IV), arsenic(III), and nitrite with perphenazine

Perphenazine dihydrochloride, PPN, is proposed as a new reagent for the spectrophotometric determination of cerium(IV), arsenic(III), and nitrite. The reagent forms a red-colored species with cerium(IV) instantaneously in 3.5–5.5 M phosphoric acid medium. The red species exhibits maximum absorbance at 516 nm. A 15-fold molar excess of PPN is necessary for the full development of the color intensity. Beer's law is obeyed over the cerium concentration range 0.4–20 ppm and Sandell's sensitivity is found to be 0.016 μg/ cm². The effects of acidity, time, order of addition of reagents, temperature, reagent concentration, and diverse ions are reported. The proposed method offers the advantages of good sensitivity, simplicity, rapidity, selectivity, and a wider range of determination without the need for heating or extraction. Arsenic(III) and nitrite are also indirectly determined. The method is extended to the determination of cerium content in synthetic mixture corresponding to misch metal.