Spectrophotometric Determination of Trace Amounts of Chromium with Citrazinic Acid

A sensitive and selective spectrophotometric method for the determination of trace amounts of chromium(VI) is described, based on diazotization and coupling reactions. Chromium(VI) oxidizes hydroxylamine in acetate buffer of pH 4.0 ± 0.5 to nitrite, which then diazotizes p-aminoacetophenone to form diazonium salt. The diazonium salt is then coupled with a new coupling agent, citrazinic acid in an alkaline medium, which gives an azo dye with an absorption maximum at 470 nm, a molar absorptivity of 2.12 × 104L mol–1cm–1, and a Sandell's sensitivity of 0.00246 μg/cm2. The color is stable for 6 h and the system obeys Beer's law in the range 2–15 μg chromium(VI) in a final volume of 10 mL. The detection limit of chromium(VI) is 0.04 μg/mL. Chromium(III) can be determined after it is oxidized with bromine water in an alkaline medium to chromium(VI). The developed method has been successfully applied to the analysis of chromium in alloy steels, industrial effluents, and pharmaceutical preparations.