Spectrophotometric determination of uranium with arsenazo-III in perchloric acid

A short, sensitive and reliable spectrophotometric method, which has advantages over all known "wet chemistry" methods for uranium determination with regard to tolerance to common interferences, has been developed for the determination of uranium. Selectivity, molar absorptivity and the determination range of uranium have been enhanced by using 0.07% arsenazo-III as a chromogenic reagent. The use of 3 mol dm(-3) perchloric acid as a medium of determination was found to be excellent in terms of good solvent compatibility on dilution, destruction of organic contamination and simplicity of operation. The uranium-arsenazo-III complex formed instantly, and was found to be stable for more than 3 weeks with constant absorbance. Beer's law was obeyed up to a uranium concentration of 16 microg g(-1), with a molar absorptivity at 651 nm of 1.45x10(5) mol(-1) dm(3) cm(-1) at 24+/-2 degrees C. Only phosphate and citrate at 70-fold excess over uranium interfere seriously, whereas other anions studied could be tolerated up to a 70-fold excess over uranium. Of the cations studied, only Mn(II), Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II) and Cr(III) decreased the normal absorbance of the complex. Iron(III), Ce(III) and Y(III) enhanced the absorbance. Other cations studied did not affect the absorbance up to a 50-fold excess. The accuracy was checked by determining uranium from standard solutions in the range 10-50 microg g(-1). It was found to be accurate with a 96.0-98.6% recovery rate. The method has been successfully applied to standard reference materials and ore samples at microg g(-1) levels.