Application of anion-exchange techniques to the determination of traces of molybdenum in sea-water

Abstract A combined ion-exchange spectrophotometric method has been developed for the determination of molybdenum in sea-water. Molybdenum is sorbed strongly on Amberlite CG 400 (Cl − ) at pH 3 from sea-water containing ascorbic acid and is easily eluted with 6 M nitric acid. Molybdenum in the effluent can be determined spectrophotometrically with potassium thiocyanate and stannous chloride. The combined method allows selective and sensitive determination of traces of molybdenum in sea-water. The precision of the method is 2% at a molybdenum level of ~ 10 μg l .