Determination of thiamazole in pharmaceutical samples by phosphorus molybdenum blue spectrophotometry

A novel method is established to determine thiamazole by phosphorus molybdenum blue spectrophotometry. The experiment indicates that PO(4)(3-) reacts with Mo(7)O(24)(6-) in 0.30mol/L H(2)SO(4) solution to form a product with phosphorus-molybdenum heteropoly acid ([H(2)PMo(12)O(40)](-)). Then [H(2)PMo(12)O(40)](-) is deoxidized to form phosphorus molybdenum blue (H(3)PO(4)·10MoO(3)·Mo(2)O(5)) by thiamazole. The amount of thiamazole can be determined based on the absorbance of phosphorus molybdenum blue (λ(max)=710nm). A good linear relationship is obtained between the absorbance and the concentration of thiamazole in the range of 0.035-70μg/mL. The equation of the linear regression is A=0.03384+0.00834c (μg/mL), with a linear correlation coefficient of 0.9990. The apparent molar absorption coefficient is 1.0×10(3)L/(molcm). The method has been successfully applied to the determination of thiamazole in pharmaceutical samples with satisfactory results, and recoveries are in the range of 99.6-100.6%.