Olcay Şendil

Preparation and properties of a new solid state borate ion selective electrode and its application

A new borate ion selective electrode using solid salts of Ag(3)BO(3), Ag(2)S and Cu(2)S has been developed. Detailed information is provided concerning the composition, working pH and conditioning of the electrode. An analytically useful potential change occurred from 1×10(-6) to 1×10(-1) M borate ion. The slope of the linear portion was 31±2 mV/10-fold changes in borate concentration. The measurements were made at constant ionic strength (0.1 M NaNO(3)) and at room temperature. The effect of Cl(-), Br(-), NO(3)(-), SO(=)(4), H(2)PO(4)(-) anions and K(+), Na(+), Cu(2+), Ag(+), Ca(2+) cations on borate response is evaluated and it was found that only Ag(+) had a small interference effect. The lifetime of the electrode was more than two years, when used at least 4-5 times a day, and the response time was about 20-30s. Borate content in waste water of borax factory, tap water of a town situated near to the borax factory and city tap water far from these mines were also determined. The validation was made with differential pulse polarography for the same water sample, and high consistency was obtained.

Systematic investigation of some metal cation interferences on the determination of molybdenum by flame atomic absorption spectrometry

The interference effects of some metal cations on the absorbance of Mo during its determination by flame AAS have been investigated, in air-acetylene flame, at a fuel flow rate of 1.8 L/min. While the interfering ion concentration was changing between 5 and 40 000 mg/L, the Mo concentration was taken as 10, 20 and 40 mg/L. It was shown that even at low concentrations of interfering ion there was a large suppression of Mo absorbance. No absorbance was observed for Mo in the presence of 50 time higher concentration of Mg, Ca, Sr, and Ba. These interference effects were suppressed by additions of 0.04% (m/v) sodium diethyldithiocarbamate (Na-DDTC), 2% (m/v) ammonium chloride, and 0.4% (m/v) sodium hydrogen phosphate. The interference from another group of elements, Mn, Fe, Al, Cd, Ni, Cr, Co, Cu and Zn, has been also investigated. In the presence of above mentioned metals, except Mn, the reproducibility of Mo absorption signal was not satisfactory. In the presence of Mn (5–40000 mg/L) the absorbance of Mo decreased significantly, however, the reproducibility was high. Molybdenum absorbance decreased under the influence of 5000–40000 mg/L of Fe, Co, Ni, 500–40000 mg/L of Cr. On the other hand, the absorption signal of Mo increased at about 20–40% in the presence of Zn and Cd. By the addition of 2% NH4Cl the interference of these metals could be eliminated completely for all mass ratios of Mn: Mo and up to Mo: M mass ratio of 1: 10–1: 100 for the other metals, and reliable absorbance signals of Mo were obtained.

A new sensitive method for the determination of trace mercury by differential pulse polarography: Application to raw salt sample

A new indirect differential pulse polarographic (DPP) method is established for the trace determination of mercury(II). Because of its toxic effects on human health, trace determination of mercury is very important. An indirect method had to be used since no polarographic peak is observed in its direct determination. According to the standard potentials, the reaction between Sn(II) and Hg(II) was found suitable. The peak of Sn(II) at about −0.40 V is sharp, high and very reproducible, which enables the determination of low concentrations of Hg(II). For this purpose, to a known amount of Sn(II) present in the polarographic cell (acetic acid, HAc, pH 1–2), the unknown Hg(II) sample is added and the quantitative reaction takes place directly in the cell. The Hg(II) concentration is calculated simply from the decrease of the Sn(II) peak. The limit of detection (LOD) was found as 2 × 10−7 M for S/N = 3. Interferences of some common cations, such as Fe, Cd, Cu, Zn and Pb and anions have been investigated. Only Pb had an overlapping peak with Sn(II). This peak overlap was eliminated simply by working at pH 2 (HAc electrolyte), because of the shift of the Pb peak in the Ac complex to −0.7 V. This method was successfully applied to synthetic samples and raw salt sample taken from a salt lake in Turkey.