Potassium ferrocyanide as a spectrophotometric reagent for the determination of uranium

Potassium ferrocyanide gives a colour reaction with U(VI), which is suitable for its determination. The complex absorbs in the wavelength range of 390–397 nm. The optimum pH range for colour development was 1.5–3.5. The molar absorptivity was found to be 4.65·10³ 1·mol^–1·cm^–1. Most of the anions up to 1000 g did not interfere. The method was made selective by extracting U(VI) first with DOSO from the mixture of interfering cations from 1–2M HNO₃ medium and then determining uranium in the back-extracted solution by developing the colour with ferrocyanide. 20 g/10 ml of U(VI) in the final solution could be satisfactorily determined within an RSD of ±2%.