Application of anion-exchange techniques to the determination of traces of molybdenum in sea-water

A combined ion-exchange spectrophotometric method has been developed for the determination of molybdenum in sea-water. Molybdenum is sorbed strongly on Amberlite CG 400 (Cl(-)) at pH 3 from sea-water containing ascorbic acid and is easily eluted with 6M nitric acid. Molybdenum in the effluent can be determined spectrophotometrically with potassium thiocyanate and stannous chloride. The combined method allows selective and sensitive determination of traces of molybdenum in sea-water. The precision of the method is 2% at a molybdenum level of ~ 10 mug l .