Micellar catalysis in kinetic methods of analysis: improvement of spectrophotometric catalytic determination of copper

The combined effects of micellar and chemical catalysis were studied with a view to improving the features of catalytic kinetic determinations. For this purpose we chose the reaction between N,N-dimethyl-p-phenylenediamine (DPD) and N,N-dimethylaniline (DA) to form Bindschedler's Green leuco base, which is oxidized by hydrogen peroxide in a reaction catalysed by Cu(II). This reaction was found to be accelerated by anionic sodium dodecylsulphate (SDS) and cationic dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide (DTAB) micelles. Several advantages were gained in relation to the analytical features of the kinetic photometric determination of Cu(II) when the reaction was developed in the presence of micelles compared to that occurring in an aqueous medium. Such advantages include a lower detection limit, higher sensitivity, precision and solubility of DPD and DA, and substantially increased selectivity in some cases. A detailed study of the parameters which influence both reactions is reported. Some observations on the effect of SDS and DTAB on the reaction are also commented on.