Spectrophotometric determination of aqueous cyanide using a revised phenolphthalin method

David Cacace; Heidi Ashbaugh; Naomi Kouri; Sara Bledsoe; Sean Lancaster; Stuart Chalk

doi:10.1016/j.aca.2007.02.004

Spectrophotometric determination of aqueous cyanide using a revised phenolphthalin method

Anal Chim Acta. 2007 Apr 18;589(1):137-41. doi: 10.1016/j.aca.2007.02.004. Epub 2007 Feb 7.

Authors

David Cacace¹, Heidi Ashbaugh, Naomi Kouri, Sara Bledsoe, Sean Lancaster, Stuart Chalk

Affiliation

¹ Department of Chemistry and Physics, University of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL 32224, USA.

PMID: 17397664
DOI: 10.1016/j.aca.2007.02.004

Abstract

This paper focuses on a revision of the phenolphthalin method for cyanide analysis, with the intent of producing a robust and sensitive spectrophotometric method. Limitations of the phenolphthalin chemistry were overcome by the addition of EDTA to the reagent. The revised reagent was found to have suitably fast kinetics, a linear dynamic range of 0.01-3.0 ppm cyanide, and a detection limit of 5 ppb. The method was tested for interferences and applied to the determination of cyanide in environmental waters.