Flow injection analysis for oxidation state speciation of vanadium(IV) and vanadium(V) in natural water

A sensitive and simultaneous spectrophotometric flow injection method for the determination of vanadium(IV) and vanadium(V) is proposed. The method is based on the effect of ligands such as 2,4,6-tris(2-pyridyl)-1,3,5-triazine (TPTZ) and diphosphate on the conditional redox potential of iron(III)/iron(II) system. A four-channel flow system is assembled. In this flow system, diluted hydrochloric acid (1.0 x 10(-2) mol dm(-3)) as a carrier for standard/sample, acetate buffer (pH 5.5) as a carrier for diphosphate solution, an equimolar mixed solution of iron(III) and iron(II) and a TPTZ solution are delivered, so that the baseline absorbance can be established by forming a constant amount of iron(II)-TPTZ complex (lambda(max) = 593 nm). Vanadium(IV) and/or vanadium(V) (400 microL) and diphosphate (200 microL) solutions are simultaneously introduced into the flow system; in this system the diphosphate solution passes through a delay coil. The potential of the iron(III)/iron(II) system increases in the presence of TPTZ, and therefore vanadium(IV) is easily oxidized by iron(III) to vanadium(V) to produce an iron(II)-TPTZ complex (a positive peak for vanadium(IV) appears). On the other hand, the potential of the redox system decreases in the presence of diphosphate, so that vanadium(V) can be easily reduced by iron(II) to vanadium(IV). In this case, the amount of iron(II) decreases according to the amount of vanadium(V). As a result, the produced iron(II)-TPTZ complex decreases (a negative peak for vanadium(V) appears). In this manner, two peaks for vanadium(IV) and vanadium(V) can be alternately obtained. The limits of detection (S/N = 3) are 1.98 x 10(-7) and 2.97 x 10(-7) mol dm(-3) for vanadium(IV) and vanadium(V), respectively. The method is applied to the simultaneous determination of vanadium(IV) and vanadium(V) in commercial bottled mineral water samples.