An indirect potentiometric determination of anions (or cations) using a precipitation reaction and a standard addition method which does not require the adjustment of an ionic strength and a solvent composition of the sample of a water—organic solvent mixture is proposed.
A certain volume (
Vr) of the aqueous solution (reactant) containing the precipitant cation A of a known concentration
cr is added to the sample of the water—organic solvent mixture of volume
V containing the analyte anion B of a concentration
cx. If the composition of formed precipitate is A
mB
n, the condition of
Vr ≥
mcxV/(
ncr) needs to be satisfied. After addition of the reactant, an A-selective electrode and a reference electrode are immersed to the sample and this solution is titrated with the aqueous solution (standard-1) containing A of a known concentration
cs1, where added volumes and the final added volume of the standard-1 are denoted with
vs1 and
vs10 respectively. The electromotive forces (
E1) corresponding to added volumes (
vs1) of the standard-1 are measured. Subsequently the same sample solution of volume
V and the reactant of volume
Vr are added to the titrated sample. This solution is titrated again with the aqueous solution (standard-2) containing A of a known concentration
cs2 ( >
cs1) and having the same ionic strength as that of the standard-1. The electromotive forces (
E2) corresponding to added volumes (
vs2) of the standard-2 are measured.
If
E1 and
E2 corresponding to
vs1 and
vs2 that satisfy a condition of
vs2 = 2
vs1 −
vs10 are read off from two titration curves, and a side reaction coefficient considering an ion association of A in the solution of
E1 measurement is almost the same as that in the solution of
E2 measurement, the following equation is held concerning with the concentration
cx of B:
&nikkashi_2001_83; (
y = [
ncs1/
ncrVr −
mcxV]
x +
g)
where
y = 10
ΔE/S,
x =
vs1{(
cs2/
cs1) −
y}, Δ
E =
E2 −
E1, and
S and
g are the response slope of the A-selective electrode and a constant respectively. This
cx is determined from the slope of linear plots of
y vs. x.
The present indirect method can be applied to determinations of the hexacyanoferrate (II) in the media of water—ethanol and water—1,4-dioxane mixtures with almost the same precision as in aqueous solutions by using a silver ion as the precipitant and a silver ion-selective electrode as an indicator electrode.
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