Sequential determination of free acidity and hydrazine in presence of hydrolysable ions

Abstract

Abstract A simple method for the sequential determination of free acidity and hydrazine in presence of hydrolysable ions is developed and described. In this method, free acid is titrated with standard sodium carbonate solution after the metal ions in solutions are masked with EDTA. Once the end point for the free acid is determined at pH 3.0, an aliquot of formaldehyde is added to liberate the acid equivalent to hydrazine which is then titrated with the same standard sodium carbonate solution using an automatic titration system. The described method is simple, accurate and reproducible. This method is especially applicable to all ranges of nitric acid and heavy metal ion concentration relevant to Purex process used for nuclear fuel reprocessing. The overall recovery of nitric acid is 98.9% with 3% relative standard deviation. The major advantage of the method is that it uses sodium carbonate a primary standard as titrant and generation of corrosive analytical wastes containing oxalate or sulphate is avoided. Valuable metals like uranium and plutonium can easily be recovered from analytical waste before final disposal.