Spectrophotometric Determination of Trace Ruthenium by its Catalytic Effect on Oxidation of Switzerland Pigment with KIO4

Abstract

A spectrophotometric method for the determination of ruthenium (III) is described, based on its catalytic effect on the oxidation reaction of switerland pigment with potassium periodate in 0.016 mol/L of hydrogen chloride medium and in the presence of OP emulsifier (p-iso-octyl phenoxy polyethoxy ethanol) at 100 °C. The above reaction is followed spectrophotometrically by measuring the decrease in the absorbance at 608 nm for the catalytic reaction of switerland pigment. The calibration curve for the recommended method was linear in the concentration range over 0.041.0 μg/L and the detection limit of the method for Ru (III) is 0.012 μg/L. The influence of the factors such as acidity, concentration of reactants, reaction time, temperature and co-existing ions on the reaction is discussed. The optimum conditions of reaction are established and some kinetic parameters are determined. The apparent activation energy of catalytic reaction is 100.48 kJ/mol. The relative standard deviation for the determination of ruthenium (III) at the concentration of 0.02 μg/25 mL is calculated to be 2.3 % (n=11). In combination with distilled separation, the method has been successfully applied for the determination of trace ruthenium (III) in some ores and metallurgy proucts with the relative standard deviations (RSD) over 2.9 %3.8 % and the recovery over 98.2 %-103.6 %.