Photodissociation/gas-diffusion separation and fluorimetric detection for the analysis of total and labile cyanide in a flow system

Total cyanide species are determined in a flow injection system which includes UV-photodissociation, gas-diffusion separation and spectrofluorimetric detection. Without the irradiation step, only cyanide easily released in acid medium, i.e. labile cyanide, is determined. Cyanide diffuses through a microporous PTFE membrane from an acid donor stream to a sodium hydroxide acceptor stream. Then, the transferred cyanide reacts with ¶o-phthalaldehyde and glycine to form a highly fluorescent isoindole derivative. Complete cyanide recoveries were obtained for the most important metal cyanide complexes found in environmental samples, excepting cobaltocyanide. The sampling frequency for total cyanide was 4 samples h–1 and the detection limit was 0.4 μg L–1. Recoveries of total cyanide from river water obtained with this method are about 90% of those obtained with APHA Method 4500-CN C for total cyanide.