Sensitive spectrophotometric method for trace amounts of uranium

A sensitive spectrophotometric method for the determination of uranium with Pyrogallol Red (PGR) and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) is described. The sensitivity of the colour reaction between uranium and Pyrogallol Red is greatly increased in the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide. The blue ternary complex (λ_max580 nm) has composition 1:2:4 U(VI):PGR:CTAB] at pH 5.6. Beer's law is obeyed over the range 19.0-0.24 ppm of uranium and the molar absorptivity is 3.3 × 10⁴ l.mole⁻¹.cm⁻¹ at 620 nm. A tentative structure for the ternary complex is suggested. A simple method is suggested for evaluation of stability constants of such ternary complexes.