Spectrophotometric studies on complexation reactions of some water-soluble 5-nitro-2-pyridylhydrazones with cobalt. Spectrophotometric and derivative spectrophotometric determination of trace cobalt with 2-benzimidazolyl-3-sulphophenylmethanone 5-nitro-2-pyridylhydrazone

The complexation reactions of four water-soluble hydrazones, 2-quinolyl-3-sulphophenylmethanone 5-nitro-2-pyridylhydrazone, 3-sulphophenyl-2-thiazolylmethanone 5-nitro-2-pyridylhydrazone (STNPH), 2-benzothiazolyl-3-sulphophenylmethanone 5-nitro-2-pyridylhydrazone and 2-benzimidazolyl-3-sulphophenylmethanone 5-nitro-2-pyridylhydrazone (BISNPH), with cobalt(II) were studied spectrophotometrically. These hydrazones react with cobalt(II) to form stable 1:2 (metal:ligand) complexes, except for STNPH, which forms a 1:1 complex, with high molar absorptivities. A sensitive and selective spectrophotometric method for the determination of cobalt with BISNPH has been developed. The cobalt(II)-BISNPH complex is formed quantitatively in the pH range 2.7–9.4 and oxidized rapidly to give the corresponding cobalt(III) complex with an absorption maximum at 517 nm. Beer's law is obeyed over the range 0.02–1.0 μg ml^?1 and the apparent molar absorptivity of the cobalt(III) complex is 6.65 × 10⁴ l mol^?1 cm^?1 at 517 nm. The method was applied to the determination of cobalt in iron and steel samples with satisfactory results. The sensitivity is increased 11-fold by use of second-derivative spectrophotometry.