In view of the well known fact that dissolved oxygen plays a very important role in petroleum refinery, the present investigation was undertaken to establish a rapid and accurate method for the determination of dissolved oxygen in gasoline . In 1924 Heyrovsky first reported that dissolved oxygen is reduced at the dropping mercury electrode to produce two waves3) . The first wave results from reduction to hydrogen peroxide :
O
2+2H
++2e→H
2O
2(acid medium)
O
2+H
2O
2+2e→HO
2-+OH
-(neutral or alkaline medium).
The second wave corresponds to the reduction of the hydrogen peroxide either to water or hydroxyl ion, depending on the pH:
H
2O
2+2erarr;2H
2O(acid medium)
HO
2-→3OH
-(alkaline medium).The diffusion currents are normally well-defined and show a linear dependence on oxygen concentration. However, three main difficulties are encountered in the application of a.c, polarography to the determination of oxygen in gasoline: the limited solubility of gasoline in aqueous or semi-aqueous electrolyte system, the exclusion of atmospheric oxygen in handling sample and the accurate calibration of calibration curve. The first difficulty was resolved by adopting a supporting electrolyte of sodium hydroxide in absolute alcohol and the second by the disign of a special polarographic cell. Two ways of accurate calibration were investigated: by using water of known dissolved oxygen content directly as a calibration standard, and by using air-saturated alcoholic electrolyte as a secondary standard, the dissolved oxygen content being determined polarographically using water as a primary standard .
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