Successive determination of copper and iron by a flow injection-catalytic photometric method using a serial flow cell

A flow injection-catalytic spectrophotometric method using a serial flow cell was proposed for the successive determination of trace amounts of copper and iron. This method is based on the oxidation coupling of p-anisidine with N,N-dimethylaniline in the presence of hydrogen peroxide to form a dye, which has an absorption maximum at 740 nm. In this indicator reaction, ligands such as 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) and diphosphate were achieved to improve the sensitivity and selectivity. Under the optimal experimental conditions, the determinable ranges were 0.05-5 ppb for copper and 0.5 - 100 ppb for iron, respectively. The RSDs (n = 10) were 0.78% for 0.5 ppb copper(II) and 0.5% for 200 ppb iron(III). The sample throughput was 30 h(-1). The present flow-injection method was applied to the determination of copper and iron in standard river water, tap water, and other natural water samples, and also to the analysis of labile and inert complexes in synthesized samples containing humic acid with copper(II) or iron(III).