Simultaneous determination of ferric, ferrous and total iron by extraction differential pulse polarography: application to the speciation of iron in rocks

The voltammetric characteristics of Fe(III) oxinate at a mercury electrode, in the presence of 0.2 M tributylammonium perchlorate (tri-BAP) and 0.2 M tributylamine (tri-BA) as the supporting electrolyte have been studied in chloroform. With this supporting electrolyte a two electron quasi-reversible process for the reduction of Fe(III) oxinate was observed. Preceded by a solvent extraction of Fe(III) oxinate in chloroform, differential pulse polarography (DP) was used for the determination of iron. The calibration graph was linear over the concentration range 0.5–50 μM Fe(III) oxinate in chloroform and the detection limit was 1.5 μM. The proposed DP method has been used for the determination of ferric, ferrous and total iron in a mixture and successfully applied to the speciation of iron in rocks.