Application of sequential injection-monosegmented flow analysis (SI-MSFA) to spectrophotometric determination of sulfide in simulated waters samples

Abstract

This paper describes the coupling of sequential injection with monosegmented flow analysis (SI-MSFA) for determination of sulfide at typical concentrations in wastewaters. The method was based on the reaction of sulfide with 19 mmol l −1 Fe 3+ and 3.63 mmol l −1 N, N-dimethyl- p-phenylene diamine hydrochloride in medium of 1.1 mol l −1 HCl, forming the dye methylene blue. The analytical curves were constructed by in-line dilution of a single stock standard solution. The robustness of the proposed method was checked constructing analytical curves in different working days and comparing the slopes, which had a relative standard deviation of 5.2% ( n=5) for a concentration range between 0.17 and 1.0 mg l −1 S 2−. The analytical throughput was 38 samples per h and the limit of detection was 0.040 mg l −1. The feasibility of the SI-MSFA approach to perform standard additions for S 2− determination was also described. Simulated samples spiked with known amounts of sulfide were analyzed by the proposed method, presenting recoveries between 70 and 115%. These results demonstrate the feasibility of the SI-MSFA method to perform in situ analysis of S 2− in automatic monitoring stations.