Spectrophotometric study of the reaction of bismuth(III) with Xylenol Orange

The reaction between bismuth(III) and Xylenol Orange (XO) has been investigated by spectrophotometry. It has been established that bismuth(III) and Xylenol Orange form complex compounds with compositions Bi(III):XO = 1:1 (up to pH 1) and Bi(III):XO = 1:2 (above pH 1) which have absorption maxima at 550 and 500 nm respectively. The formula of the 1:1 complex is Bi(H(3)R)] whereas the 1:2 complex can take one of the following forms: Bi(H(4)R)(2)](1-), Bi(H(4)R)(H(3)R)](2-) and Bi(H(3)R)(2)](3-). If the values for pK(Bi(H(3)R)) and pK(Bi(H(3)R)(2)) respectively are 9.80 +/- 0.03 and 15.53 +/- 0.03 at a constant ionic strength of 1.0.