Preconcentration of 1-(2-pyridylazo)-2-naphthol-iron(III)-capriquat on a membrane filter, and third-derivative spectrophotometric determination of iron(III)

Iron(III) was preconcentrated by collection on an organic solvent-soluble membrane filter (nitrocellulose (NC)) of the iron(III)-1-(2-pyridylazo)-2-naphthol (PAN) complex in the presence of capriquat as an oily quaternary ammonium salt. Third-derivative spectrophotometry was used for measurement of the third-derivative distance (d(3)A/dlambda(3)) between lambda(1) = 520 nm and lambda(2) = 590 nm or lambda(3) = 660 nm and lambda(4) = 724 nm of the iron(III)-PAN-capriquat complex or PAN-capriquat in dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) following preconcentration. The calibration curve was linear in the range of 1-10 mug iron(III)/5.0 ml DMSO solution. The proposed method was about five-fold more sensitive and more selective than using zero-order spectrophotometry.