Flow injection spectrophotometric determination of cyanide by the phenolphthalin method

Abstract

The phenolphthalin method for the determination of cyanide has been modified and adapted to a continuous flow system based on the flow injection principle. Aqueous cyanide samples are injected into a carrier stream (0.001 M NaOH), which is then merged with the combined reagent stream of phenolphthalin and carbonate buffer (pH 10.3), and the mixture is passed through an on-line cupric sulfide packed column. The resulting phenolphthalein (the oxidized form of phenolphthalin) is measured in a flow-through spectrophotometer at 552 nm, to determine the cyanide content. The chemical factors and flow injection analysis (FIA) variables influencing the system are discussed. The calibration graph is linear from 0.6 to 4.3 ppm cyanide. At a sampling rate of about 70 samples h −1 with 50 μl sample injections, precision was about 1% relative S.D.