Determination of methanol in o,o-dimethyldithiophosphoric acid (DMDTPA) of technical grade by UV/vis spectrophotometry and by HPLC

Two procedures are proposed in this work for the determination of methanol impurities in o,o-dimethyldithiophosphoric acid (DMDTPA). To avoid possible interferences from the main component, DMDTPA was precipitated in the form of insoluble lead complex. Free Pb(II) ions were eliminated with sulfuric acid and methanol was oxidized to formaldehyde with potassium permanganate in methanesulfonic acid medium. Finally, the excess of oxidizing agent was neutralized with saturated sodium oxalate. The above pretreatment procedure was identical for spectrophotometric assay and for chromatographic determination. In the first case, the solution obtained was treated with Nash reagent to form 3,5-diacetyl-1,4-dihydrolutidine (λmax = 415 nm). In the calibration range 0.1–1.0% (methanol in DMDTPA), the analytical figures of merit were: R2 = 0.9993, quantification limit 0.02% methanol in DMDTPA coefficient of variance (n = 5) for 0.1% and 0.4% methanol respectively 6.7% and 2.4%. Recoveries obtained in the sample fortified with 0.1, 0.2, 0.4% of methanol (in DMDTPA) were in the range 99–105%. For chromatographic procedure, formaldehyde was derivatized with 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine and separation was achieved on Luna C18(2) column using the isocratic elution with acetonitrile–water (70:30, v/v) and spectrophotometric detection at 360 nm. In the calibration range 0.05–0.25% (methanol in DMDTPA), R2 was always higher than 0.999, the quantification limit was 0.004% and the recoveries in these same fortified samples in the range 98–101%. No statistically significant differences were observed between the results obtained in the analysis of technical grade DMDTPA by the two procedures (ANOVA, p < 0.05)