A novel spectrofluorimetric method for the ultra trace analysis of nitrite and nitrate in aqueous medium and its application to air, water, soil and forensic samples

Suchandra Biswas; Bhaskar Chowdhury; Bidhan Chandra Ray

doi:10.1016/j.talanta.2004.02.018

A novel spectrofluorimetric method for the ultra trace analysis of nitrite and nitrate in aqueous medium and its application to air, water, soil and forensic samples

Talanta. 2004 Oct 8;64(2):308-12. doi: 10.1016/j.talanta.2004.02.018.

Authors

Suchandra Biswas¹, Bhaskar Chowdhury, Bidhan Chandra Ray

Affiliation

¹ Department of Chemistry, Jadavpur University, Calcutta 700032, India.

PMID: 18969604
DOI: 10.1016/j.talanta.2004.02.018

Abstract

A highly sensitive and virtually specific method has been developed for the trace and ultra trace 5ngml(-1)-1mugml(-1) fluorimetric analysis of nitrite. The method is based on the quenching action of nitrite on the native fluorescence of murexide (ammonium purpurate) [lambda(ex)=349.0nm, lambda(em)=444.5nm] in the acid range of 0.045-0.315 (M) H(2)SO(4). The method is very precise and accurate (S.D.=+/-0.4877 and R.S.D.=0.4878% for the determination of 0.1mugml(-1) of nitrite in 11 replicates). Relatively large excesses of over 35 cations and anions do not interfere. The proposed technique has been successfully applied for the determination of nitrite and nitrate in ground water, surface water and sea water, nitrite in soil and nitrate in forensic samples. The method has also been extended for the analysis of NO(x) in air.