Spectrophotometric determination of zirconium with 9-methyl-2,3,7-trihydroxy-6-fluorone

Summary 9-Methyl-2.3.7-trihydroxy-6-fluorone has been used as a new colorimetric reagent for zirconium. The rose-red complex shows maximum absorption, against the reagent blank, at 500 nm and obeys Beer's law from 0.1 to 2.5 ppm. The optimum concentration range is from 0.66 to 2.5 ppm, where the per cent relative analysis error is 2.96. The composition of the complex, obtained from Job's method, indicates that the complex in solution contains the metal and the reagent in a ratio of 11. The instability constant of the complex is 1.07 · 10^–6.