Spectrophotometric determination of nickel in biological samples using 1-azobenzene-3-(3-hydroxyl-2-pyridyl)-triazene

Abstract

A new sensitive and selective chromogenic reagent, 1-azobenzene-3-(3-hydroxyl-2-pyridyl)-triazene (ABHPT), was synthesized. It has been found that ABHPT reacts with nickel(II) in a borax buffer solution (pH 10.0) to form 2: 1 red complexes with the maximum absorption at 530 nm. The apparent molar absorptivity of the complex is 2.6 × 105 L/(mol cm). Most metal ions can be tolerated in considerable amounts, whereby only zinc and mercury may interfere with the determination of nickel(II). Nevertheless, this can be easily eliminated by prior separation with sulfhydryl dextran gel. A new method for the spectrophotometric determination of trace nickel(II) was developed. Beer’s law is obeyed for 0–15 μg of nickel(II) in 25 mL of solution. The limit of quantification, limit of detection, and relative standard deviation are 0.74 ng/mL, 0.25 ng/mL, and 1.0%, respectively. The method has been applied to the determination of trace nickel(II) in biological samples with satisfactory results.