Thermal lens studies of the reaction of iron(II) with 1,10-phenanthroline at the nanogram level

The determination of iron(II) with 1,10-phenanthroline in aqueous solutions was carried out exemplarily by thermal lens spectrometry. The peculiarities of analytical reactions at the nanogram level of reactants can be studied using this method. Under the conditions of the competing reaction of ligand protonation, the overall stability constant for iron(II) chelate with 1,10-phenanthroline was determined at a level of n × 10^–7 mol L^–1, logβ ₃ = 21.3 ± 0.1. The rates of formation and dissociation of iron(II) tris-(1,10-phenanthrolinate) at a level of n × 10^–8 mol L^–1 were found to be (2.05 ± 0.05) × 10^–2 min^–1 and (3.0 ± 0.1) × 10^–3 min^–1, respectively. The conditions for the determination of iron(II) with 1,10-phenanthroline by thermal lensing were reconsidered, and ascorbic acid was shown to be the best reducing agent, which provided minimum and reproducible sample pretreatment. Changes in the conditions at the nanogram level improved both the selectivity and sensitivity of determination. The optimum measurement conditions for thermal lensing were determined not only by the absorption of the analyte and reagents, but also by the background absorption of the solvent. The limits of detection and quantification of iron(II) at 488.0 nm (excitation beam power 140 mW) are 1 × 10^–9 and 6 × 10^–9 mol L^–1, respectively; the reproducibility RSD for the range n × 10^–8–n × 10^–6 mol L^–1 is 2–5%.