Simultaneous determination of iron(II), iron(III), and titanium(IV) by flow injection analysis using kinetic spectrophotometry with Tiron

Two flow injection analysis systems have been worked out for the simultaneous determination of Fe(III), Fe(II), and Ti(IV) based on the kinetic spectrophotometry with Tiron. The first system uses a silver reductor column and a single detector with two flow cells aligned in the same optical path to yield two peaks corresponding to (a) Ti(IV)-Tiron and (b) Ti(IV) plus total iron(III)-Tiron complexes. An another sample injection without the silver column yields a single peak which corresponds to Ti(IV) plus Fe(III)-Tiron complexes. With the two sample aliquot injections the system permits simultaneous determinations with throughput of 30 samples/h in the μg to several tens μg range of each species. The second system is a multidetection system with or without the silver reductor column using the same spectrophotometry with Tiron, in which the entrapment of the sample plug into a closed system allows its repetitive passage through a single detector. With the advantage of much simpler instrumentation, the system permits 6 samples/h to be analyzed for the three metal species with somewhat lower precisions than the first system.