Among a number of methods for determinations of alkyl benzene sulfonate(ABS) in water, colorimetric methods using methylene blue are most useful, because of their simplicity.
But, the methods are relatively nonspecific and subject to many interferences especially of anionic detergents outside of ABS. A modification of the Longwell-Maniece method (L. M. method) which have been introduced to reduce interferences, particularly of anionic detergents, is described.
One hundred m
l of sample water is taken and concentrated to about 50 m
l (0.020.14 mg as ABS is required to be contained). Twenty five m
l of HCl is added to it and boiled for one hour in a round-bottom flask with a water-cooling condenser (for instance, 1 mg of sodium lauryl sulfate can be decomposed by this procedure). After cooling, a few drops of phenolphthalein solution and sodium hydroxide solution are added till neutrality and the L. M. method is applied.
Available range for determination in the proposed method is from 0.02 to 0.14 mg of ABS/50 m
l CHCl
3, at 654 mμ in a 10 mm cell, using pure chloroform as a reference blank.
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