Simultaneous spectrophotometric determination of cobalt, nickel and copper with 2,3-quinoxaline- dithiol

In aqueous ethanol cobalt(II), nickel(II) and copper(I) react instantaneously with 2,3-quinoxalinedithiol at pH 2 to form strongly coloured complexes exhibiting absorption maxima at 510, 606 and 665, and 625 nm, respectively. At pH 6 the reaction of copper can be virtually eliminated, while the cobalt and nickel reactions show only small decreases in sensitivity. This behaviour has been made the basis of a rapid method for the simultaneous determination of these three elements. The absorbances of the complexes have been found to be additive for all combinations of these elements in which the individual concentrations have been varied from approximately 0.1 to 1 ppm. A least-squares estimate of the concentration of any of the elements may be readily obtained by using a simple linear equation based on the absorbance readings and a set of constants derived from the spectrophotometric data. The analyses of seven synthetic solutions and four NBS Standard Reference Materials yielded a maximum error of 6.0% and an average error of 1.6%.