Flow-injection chemiluminescent determination of vanadium(IV) and total vanadium by means of catalysis on the periodate oxidation of purpurogallin

A flow-injection chemiluminescent (CL) method is proposed for the successive determination of nanogram levels of vanadium(IV) and total vanadium. The method is based on the catalytic effect of vanadium(IV) on the oxidation of purpurogallin by periodate to produce light emission at 4 °C. The presence of hydrogen carbonate enhanced the light emission arising from the vanadium(IV)-catalyzed reaction. Since vanadium(V) did not catalyze the CL reaction of purpurogallin, vanadium(V) was determined after being reduced to vanadium(IV) by using an on-line silver-reducing column. Calibration curves for vanadium(IV) and (V) were linear in the range 0.1–10 ng ml−1 with sampling rate of about 50 h−1. The limit of detection for signal-to-noise ratio of 2 was 0.05 ng ml−1 and the relative standard deviations were 1.4 and 1.6% for ten determinations of 2.0 ng ml−1 vanadium(IV) and (V), respectively. Interferences from metal ions could be eliminated by the use of O,O′-bis(2-aminoethyl)ethyleneglycol- N,N,N′,N′-tetraacetic acid and diphosphate as masking agents. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of vanadium(IV) and total vanadium in fresh water samples.