Spectrophotometric determination of cationic and anionic surfactants with anionic dyes in the presence of nonionic surfactants,part II: Development of batch and flow injection methods

On the basis of the changes in absorption spectra of azo dyes on the addition of an organic onium ion, spectrophotometric methods for the determination of organic onium salts and anionic surfactants were developed, and applied to flow injection method. Propyl orange (PO^–) was used for the determination of organic onium ions. Pairs of PO^– and Zeph⁺ (tetradecyldimethyl-benzylammonium ion) or PO^– and nC₁₈TMA⁺ (n-octadecyltrimethylammonium ion) were used for the determination of anionic surfactants. The determination range of organic onium ions were (0–3) × 10^–5 M by a batch method and were (0–2) × 10^–5 M by a flow injection method. The determination ranges of anionic surfactants were (0–2) × 10^–5 M by the batch method, and were (0–5) × 10^–5 M by the flow injection method, and the detection limit corresponding toS/N = 3 was 3 × 10^–7 M by the flow injection method. By the proposed flow injection method, anionic surfactants in water samples were determined.