Flow-injection simultaneous determination of iron(III) and copper(II) and of iron(III) and palladium(II) based on photochemical reactions of thiocyanato-complexes

The flow injection analysis systems have been developed for the simultaneous determination of iron(III) and copper(II) and of iron(III) and palladium(II) based on the photochemical reactions of their thiocyanato-complexes. In the first system, a sample solution was injected in to nitric acid solution and mixed with ammonium thiocyanate solution, followed by spectrophotometric monitoring of the thiocyanato-complexes formed. Another aliquot of the same sample solution was injected and the thiocyanato-complexes formed in the same way were irradiated by UV light before spectrophotometric monitoring. In another system, the absorbance of thiocyanato-complexes formed by each sample injection was monitored with two flow cells aligned with the same optical path before and after UV irradiation. The difference in the extent of photochemical decomposition of the thiocyanato-complexes enabled simultaneous determinations of iron(III) and copper(II) and of iron(III) and palladium(II) at levels of several μg ml−1 to some tens μg ml−1 in their admixtures. Sample throughputs are 40 and 20 h−1 by the former and latter systems, respectively.