Extraction-Spectrophotometric Determination of Mercury(II) using 2-Hydroxy-1-Naphthaldehyde-4-Phenyl-3-Thio-Semicarbazone as A Selective Reagent

Lee Jin Sik, Katsuya Uesugi, Thoru Nagahiro, Tetsu Kumagai and Hiroshi Nishioka

Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Engineering, Himeji Institute of Technology, Shosha, Himeji, Hyogo, 671-22 Japan.

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ABSTRACT:

An extraction-spectrophotometric method for the determination of mercury using 2-hydroxy-1- naphthaldhyde-4-phenyl-3-thiosemicarbazone (HNAPS) was studied. The method is based on the formation of an insoluble mercury (Il)-HNAPS complex, which is extractable into chloroform from 1.5 M sulfuric acid medium by shaking for 5 min. The absorbance is measured at 413 nm and the molar absorptivity is 2.16 x 104 I mol-1 cm-1. The complex system conforms to Beer's law for up to 10 μ g mi"1 of mercury(lI). The proposed method is simple and selective and has been satisfactorily applied to the determination of mercury in human hair samples.

KEYWORDS:

Extraction-Spectrophotometric; Selective; Satisfactorily