Spectrophotometric determination of osmium: Sulphanilic acid as a reagent

Sulphanilic acid has been found to be a very effective reagent for the spectrophotometric determination (if hexavalent and octavalent osmium in the pH range between 1.8 – 3.5. In these two valence states, the element forms a dark-violet complex with the reagent, the absorption maximum of the complex being at 490 mμ. As most of the other ions interfere in the determination, the element must be separated as osmic acid by nitric acid distillation. Beer's law is obeyed in the case of 0.5 to 9 p.p.m. of osmium (VIII) and l to 18 p.p.m. of osmium (VI); tin-optimum concentration ranges are from 2 to 8 p.p.m. for osmium(VIII) and from 4 to 16 p.p.m. for osmium(Vl). In these ranges, the % relative errors per 1% absolute photometric error are 3.02 for osmium (VIII) and 3.1 for osmium(VI). Application of the method of continuous variations and the molar ratio method indicates that in solution hexavalent osmium and the reagent form a 1:2. complex, with an average dissociation constant of 1.2 ? 10^-7.