Mercury displacement detection for the determination of picogram amounts of sulfite ion or sulfur dioxide by atomic spectrometry

Journal Article · Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 1981 · Anal. Chem.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/ac00235a011· OSTI ID:6124311

Marshall, G; Midgley, D

An analytical method has been developed that can determine picogram amounts of sulfite in aqueous solution or sulfur dioxide in solution. The technique is based on the reaction of sulfite ion in solution with mercury(I) ion to promote its disproportionation to metallic mercury and mercury(II) ions. By monitoring the Hg/sup 0/ released it is possible to determine the concentration of sulfite added. The method gives a linear calibration over the range tested (0 to 5 ng of sulfite) and the within-batch cefficients of variation for the determination of 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, and 5.0 ng of sulfite are 4, 3, 2.5, and 1.8%, respectively. Fifteen analyses can be carried out each hour. The limit of detection is 30 pg of sulfite, which is several orders of magnitude lower than can be obtained by other manual methods of sulfite determination. The method is very selective. Sulfate ion does not interfere, which is especially important in the determination of atmospheric sulfur dioxide.

• Research Organization: Central Electricity Research Labs., Leatherhead, England
• OSTI ID: 6124311
• Journal Information: Anal. Chem.; (United States), Vol. 53:12
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC
ORGANIC
PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
MERCURY
ABSORPTION SPECTROSCOPY
MERCURY COMPOUNDS
COMPLEXOMETRY
SULFITES
SULFUR
QUANTITATIVE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
ANIONS
AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS
CATIONS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
RELIABILITY
SENSITIVITY
SULFUR DIOXIDE
TRACE AMOUNTS
CHALCOGENIDES
CHARGED PARTICLES
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
DATA
DISPERSIONS
ELEMENTS
INFORMATION
IONS
METALS
MIXTURES
NONMETALS
NUMERICAL DATA
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
SOLUTIONS
SPECTROSCOPY
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
SULFUR OXIDES
400104* - Spectral Procedures- (-1987)