Spectrophotometric determination of micro amounts of cadmium in waste water with cadion and triton X-100

A spectrophotometric method for determination of micro amounts of cadmium in waste water with Cadion and Triton X-100 is described. The interference of foreign ions can be eliminated by masking with an ascorbic acid-Rochelle salt-potassium cyanide-potassium fluoride mixture. After demasking with formalin, cadmium is determined directly in aqueous solution without separation. Beer's law is obeyed for 0-8 mug of Cd in 25 ml of solution. The method is more sensitive than the dithizone method, its apparent molar absorptivity at 480 nm being 1.19 x 10(5) 1. mole(-1). cm(-1). Results obtained by using the proposed method on waste water samples agree well with those obtained by atomic-absorption spectrophotometry.