Spectrophotometric Flow Injection Analysis of Sulfite and Formaldehyde In Aqueous Micellar Medium Using 5, 5′-Dithiobis (2-Nitrobenzoic Acid)

Abstract

Aqueous sulfite and formaldehyde were quantitated in the nanomole range using the reaction of 5,5′-dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoic acid), DTNB, with sulfite. Cationic micelles were used and found to greatly increase the sensitivity, bathochromically shifting the absorption spectra as well as lowering the pK of the reaction. the method was adapted to flow injection analysis, allowing more than 100 samples to be analyzed per hour with a relative standard deviation of less than 1.5% in all cases studied. the method is simple, fast and more sensitive than any available methods. the great flexibility of the choice of pH, surfactant concentration and buffer concentration contributes much to the high precision that could be achieved.