Determination of hydrogen peroxide by xenon trioxide oxidation

Aqueous xenon trioxide solution has been used as the oxidizing agent in three precise methods of analysis for hydrogen peroxide. A catalytic method, which utilizes hydrogen peroxide to initiate the reaction between t-butanol and xenon trioxide, is described for determining amounts of hydrogen peroxide as low as 0.9 microg or 36 parts per milliard (ppM). A direct spectrophotometric titration was found to have a lower limit of about 50 microg, or 20 ppM. An indirect titrimetric method was also used to determine hydrogen peroxide in amounts as low as 50 microg with a relative standard deviation of 4% which decreased to 1 % for amounts over 200 microg.