A new method in estimation of total hexavalent chromium in Portland pozzolan cement

Variamine blue was used first time for the detection of hexavalent chromium from cement samples. In present method, cement was treated sequentially with water, sulphate and carbonate buffer to extract soluble, sparingly soluble and insoluble hexavalent chromium respectively. Extracted Cr (VI) was determined using variamine blue as chromogenic reagent. The determination is based on the reaction of hexavalent chromium with potassium iodide in an acid medium to liberate iodine. This oxidizes variamine blue to form a violet coloured species having an absorption to maximum at 556 nm. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and Infrared Spectroscopy (IR) confirmed the complete extraction of hexavalent chromium by sequential extraction process. SRM 2701 (Reference material from NIST, USA) was used for revalidating the results. The percentage of recovery for proposed and reference method (diphelycarbazide method) varied from 98.5 to 101 and 97.5 to 100.5. Whereas, their relative error percentage varied from -1.5 to 0.33 and -2.5 to 0.5.