A coulometric method for the assay of some easily oxidized organic substances with iodine as an oxidizing agent.
A coulometric method for the assay of easily oxidized organic substances, using iodine as an oxidizing agent, has been developed. The principle of the method is to oxidize the substance with an excess of iodine in a water-acetic acid medium and then titrate the iodide formed, with anodically generated silver ion. The titration is followed by dead-stop indication using two platinum electrodes. The method has been applied to the assay of dihydric phenols with hydroxyl groups in the ortho or para positions and to the determination of ascorbic acid in various pharmaceutical preparations. The absolute relative error varied between 0.2 and 2.8% for the 8 phenols investigated and the relative standard deviation between 0.2 and 1%. For standard solutions of ascorbic acid the absolute relative error was 0.9% and for the 6 pharmaceutical preparations investigated the relative standard deviation lay in the range 0.3-0.9%. The method is easy to apply and has a number of advantages over current iodimetric methods.
Edholm
L E
LE
Department of Technical Analytical Chemistry, Chemical Center, Lund, Sweden.