Determination of methylmercuric ions by photometric titration with dithizone.
A rapid photometric titration titration technique, which makes it possible to determine methylmercuric ions with a sensitivity of 15mug, is described. The titration takes place in 80% aqueous ethanol, which is capable of dissolving the titrant, a chloroform solution of dithizone. It has thus been possible to avoid the difficulties arising from co-extraction phenomena that occur when the extractive titration procedures developed for mercury(II) are applied to the determination of methylmercuric ions. A formate buffer is used to keep the pH in the range 2.5-3.0. The attainable precision is considerably better than 1 %.
Ingman
F
F
Department of Inorganic Chemistry Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm, Sweden.