Kinetic-Spectrophotometric Determination of Trace Quantities of Thiocyanate Based on Its Landolt Effect on the Reaction of Bromate with Hydrochloric Acid1

Abstract

A new method for the rapid and sensitive determination of trace quantities of thiocyanate based on its Landolt effect on the bromate-hydrochloric acid reaction was developed. The induction period of the reaction is proportional to the SCN– concentration. The decolorization of methyl orange by the reaction products was used to monitor the reaction spectrophotometrically at 525 nm. We were able to determine thiocyanate in the range 2 × 10–7–4 × 10–5 M by this method. The relative standard deviation for 10 determinations of 1.5 × 10–6 M thiocyanate ion is 0.19% and the detection limit of the method was 7.00 × 10–8 M. The method was applied to the determination of thiocyanate in human blood serum and of saliva samples with satisfactory results.