Preconcentration and selective determination of traces of tin in natural waters

A combined preconcentration-photometric determination technique has been worked out for trace concentration of tin in fresh and sea waters. After refluxing the sample acidified to 1M HCl for 2 h, tin is preconcentrated by anion-exchange in the presence of thiocyanate and recovered by elution with dilute HNO3. Tin is then generated as stannane, caught in permanganate solution, and determined spectrpphotometrically with phenylfluorone. The results are quoted on the determination of tin in several fresh and sea waters in the order of submicrogram of tin per litre. The results for tin are in good agreement with those obtained for these samples by manganese dioxide coprecipitation-hydride generation-phenylfluorone spectrophotometric method that is also newly developed.