The determination of thiols with diphenylpicrylhydrazyl as a spectrophotometric reagent

Diphenylpicrylhydrazyl (DPPH), a stable, intensely purple free radical, is used as a reagent in the quantitative determination of various aromatic and aliphatic thiols by indirect spectrophotometric analysis. Plots of degree of reaction vs. time show that thiophenol and its derivatives react more quickly than aliphatic thiols with DPPH. Calibration plots are linear over the concentration range 0.05-3.00 x 10(-5)M thiol. The average relative error is in the range 1-2% and the absolute standard deviations range up to 0.50 x 10(-6)M.