Spectrophotometric determination of tungsten with thiocyanate

The yellow W(V) thiocyanate complex is formed by shaking sodium tungstate solution in 0.2-0.8M potassium thiocyanate and 4-5M hydrochloric acid, with mercury. It is extracted with 2% tribenzylamine solution in chloroform and measured at 410 nm. U, Ti, V, Cr, Fe, Co, Ni, Mn, Al, Pb, Sn, Bi, Pd, Sb and Cu do not interfere. Pt and Mo in amount equal to that of tungsten give errors of up to 0.4 and 2% respectively. The sensitivity is 0.013 mug ml and Beer's law is obeyed up to 24 mug ml .