Indirect photometric determination of europium(II) in some inorganic materials containing aliovalent europium species

A procedure is proposed for the indirect spectrophotometric determination of trace europium(II) in poorly soluble inorganic materials. The approach based on sample dissolution in the presence of excess vanadium(V) salts followed by the determination of vanadium(IV), equivalent to the concentration of europium(II), is used. The photometric determination of V(IV) is based on its oxidation with a potassium permanganate solution followed by the measurement of absorbance of excess MnO₄⁻. The procedure is applied to the analysis of EuF_{3 − x} with low europium(II) concentrations in the study the dissolution products of europium fluorides in salt melts and in the study the products of sorption europium(II) by strontium fluorapatite from salt melts. The proposed procedure is rapid and simple. It possesses satisfactory performance characteristics.