Spectrophotometric determination of lead in foods with dibromo-p-methyl-bromosulfonazo

The synthesis and purification of a new chromogenic reagent dibromo-p-methyl-bromosulfonazo (DBMBSA) are described. A method is proposed for the spectrophotometric determination of lead with DBMBSA. In 0.24 M phosphoric acid medium, which greatly increases the selectivity, lead reacts with DBMBSA to form a 1:2 blue complex, having a sensitive absorption peak at 638 nm. Under the optimal conditions. Beer's law is obeyed over the range from 0 to 1 mug ml(-1) Pb(II) and the apparent molar absorptivity is 8.44 x 10(4) l mol(-1) cm(-1). The detection limit and the variation coefficient were found to be 2.45 ng ml(-1) and 1.3%, respectively. It is found that, except for Ca(II) and Ba(II), all foreign ions studied do not interfere with determination. The interference caused by Ca(II) and Ba(II) can be easily eliminated by prior extraction with potassium iodide-methylisobutylketone (KI-MIBK). The method has been applied to the determination of lead in foods with satisfactory results. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.