Kinetic spectrophotometric determination of traces of sulfide in nonionic micellar medium

A sensitive kinetic spectrophotometric method for the determination of ng amounts of sulfide has been developed based on the reduction of Azure A by sulfide in the presence of Brij-35 at pH 7. The decrease in absorbance of Azure A at 600 nm is proportional to the concentration of sulfide over the range 25-1,400 ng mL(-1). The variables affecting the rate of the reaction were investigated and the optimum conditions were established. The method is simple, rapid, precise, sensitive, and widely applicable. The limit of detection is 17 ng mL(-1), and the relative standard deviation of seven determinations of 500 ng mL(-1) sulfide was 2.1%. The method was applied to the determination of sulfide in spring water.