Flow Injection Spectrophotometric Determination of Trace Amounts of Hydrazine by the Inhibition of the Pyrogallol Red-Iodate Reaction

A simple and sensitive flow injection method is described for the determination of trace amounts of hydrazine, based on its inhibitory effect on the reaction between pyrogallol red and iodate in hydrochloric acid media. The reaction was monitored spectrophotometrically by measuring the change in absorbance of pyrogallol red at 470 nm. The calibration graph was linear over the range of 0.050–1.20 g/mL, with a limit of detection of 0.03 g/mL. The relative standard deviation for ten replicate measurements of 0.060 and 0.70 g/mL was 2.2 and 0.50%, respectively. Potential interfering substances were studied in the presence of hydrazine. The proposed method was applied to the determination of hydrazine in water samples.