Cobalt interference

Tungsten. Both water-soluble and insoluble compounds are determined. Particulate tungsten on a filter is first extracted with water. One ml of 20% w/v sodium sulfate is added to the extract which is then dilute for analysis by rich nitrous oxide-acetylene flame at 255.1 nm. The filter is treated with 1 1 HC1 to remove iron and cobalt interferences before being nitric acid wet ashed and nitric/hydrofluoric acid wet ashed. The residue is heated with 0.5 N NaOH and treated as soluble tungsten. Tungsten carbide is determined at less than 100% recovery when cobalt is present. The detailed method for tungsten developed by Hull and Eller is in Volume Four of the NIOSH Manual of Analytical Methods to be published in Winter 1978. 

Cobalt most often depresses the activity of enzyme including catalase, amino levulinic acid synthetase, and P-450, enzymes involved in cellular respiration. The Krebs citric acid cycle can be blocked by cobalt resulting in the inhibition of cellular energy production. Cobalt can replace zinc in a number of zinc-required enzymes like alcohol dehydrogenase. Cobalt can also enhance the kinetics of some enzymes such as heme oxidase in the liver. Cobalt interferes with and depresses iodine metabolism resulting in reduced thyroid activity. Reduced thyroid activity can lead to goiter. 

A sensitive test for NP, with precise claims differing widely, depends on the characteristic red precipitates that certain dioximes form in anunoniacal or buffered acetic-acid solutions. The most common example, 2,3-butanedionedioxime, dimethylglyoxime , abbreviated as H2Dmg , that is [Me-C(=NOH)-]2, gives [Ni(HDmg)2] or [Ni(C4HvN202)2], soluble in CN . Other ions form similar, but soluble complexes. Cobalt interferes if present in an excess of more than 10 Co to 1 Ni. Iron(2+) gives a red color but also no precipitate. 

Chromium (ITT) can be analy2ed to a lower limit of 5 x 10 ° M by luminol—hydrogen peroxide without separating from other metals. Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) is added to deactivate most interferences. Chromium (ITT) itself is deactivated slowly by complexation with EDTA measurement of the sample after Cr(III) deactivation is complete provides a blank which can be subtracted to eliminate interference from such ions as iron(II), inon(III), and cobalt(II), which are not sufficiently deactivated by EDTA (275). 

The effects of vaiious cationic interferences on percent recovery of Cobalt were studied. The method was successfully applied for the determinations of Cobalt ion from synthetic and water samples. 

Discussion. Iron(III) (50-200 fig) can be extracted from aqueous solution with a 1 per cent solution of 8-hydroxyquinoline in chloroform by double extraction when the pH of the aqueous solution is between 2 and 10. At a pH of 2-2.5 nickel, cobalt, cerium(III), and aluminium do not interfere. Iron(III) oxinate is dark-coloured in chloroform and absorbs at 470 nm. 

Repeat the experiment in the presence of 500 jug of iron(III) and 500 jug of aluminium ions no interference will be detected, but cobalt may interfere (Note 2). 

Sometimes the metal may be transformed into a different oxidation state thus copper(II) may be reduced in acid solution by hydroxylamine or ascorbic acid. After rendering ammoniacal, nickel or cobalt can be titrated using, for example, murexide as indicator without interference from the copper, which is now present as Cu(I). Iron(III) can often be similarly masked by reduction with ascorbic acid. 

Note. The presence of metals whose salts are colourless does not influence the accuracy of the determination, except that mercury and palladium must be absent since their thiocyanates are insoluble. Salts of metals (e.g. nickel and cobalt) which are coloured must not be present to any considerable extent. Copper does not interfere, provided it does not form more than about 40 per cent of the alloy. 

Determination of copper as copper(I) thiocyanate Discussion. This is an excellent method, since most thiocyanates of other metals are soluble. Separation may thus be effected from bismuth, cadmium, arsenic, antimony, tin, iron, nickel, cobalt, manganese, and zinc. The addition of 2-3 g of tartaric acid is desirable for the prevention of hydrolysis when bismuth, antimony, or tin is present. Excessive amounts of ammonium salts or of the thiocyanate precipitant should be absent, as should also oxidising agents the solution should only be slightly acidic, since the solubility of the precipitate increases with decreasing pH. Lead, mercury, the precious metals, selenium, and tellurium interfere and contaminate the precipitate. 

Large amounts of chloride, cobalt(II), and chromium(III) do not interfere iron(III), nickel, molybdenum)VI), tungsten(VI), and uranium(VI) are innocuous nitrate, sulphate, and perchlorate ions are harmless. Large quantities of magnesium, cadmium, and aluminium yield precipitates which may co-precipitate manganese and should therefore be absent. Vanadium causes difficulties only... 

The reaction is a sensitive one, but is subject to a number of interferences. The solution must be free from large amounts of lead, thallium (I), copper, tin, arsenic, antimony, gold, silver, platinum, and palladium, and from elements in sufficient quantity to colour the solution, e.g. nickel. Metals giving insoluble iodides must be absent, or present in amounts not yielding a precipitate. Substances which liberate iodine from potassium iodide interfere, for example iron(III) the latter should be reduced with sulphurous acid and the excess of gas boiled off, or by a 30 per cent solution of hypophosphorous acid. Chloride ion reduces the intensity of the bismuth colour. Separation of bismuth from copper can be effected by extraction of the bismuth as dithizonate by treatment in ammoniacal potassium cyanide solution with a 0.1 per cent solution of dithizone in chloroform if lead is present, shaking of the chloroform solution of lead and bismuth dithizonates with a buffer solution of pH 3.4 results in the lead alone passing into the aqueous phase. The bismuth complex is soluble in a pentan-l-ol-ethyl acetate mixture, and this fact can be utilised for the determination in the presence of coloured ions, such as nickel, cobalt, chromium, and uranium. 

The cobalt complex is usually formed in a hot acetate-acetic acid medium. After the formation of the cobalt colour, hydrochloric acid or nitric acid is added to decompose the complexes of most of the other heavy metals present. Iron, copper, cerium(IV), chromium(III and VI), nickel, vanadyl vanadium, and copper interfere when present in appreciable quantities. Excess of the reagent minimises the interference of iron(II) iron(III) can be removed by diethyl ether extraction from a hydrochloric acid solution. Most of the interferences can be eliminated by treatment with potassium bromate, followed by the addition of an alkali fluoride. Cobalt may also be isolated by dithizone extraction from a basic medium after copper has been removed (if necessary) from acidic solution. An alumina column may also be used to adsorb the cobalt nitroso-R-chelate anion in the presence of perchloric acid, the other elements are eluted with warm 1M nitric acid, and finally the cobalt complex with 1M sulphuric acid, and the absorbance measured at 500 nm. 

Sulphuric acid is not recommended, because sulphate ions have a certain tendency to form complexes with iron(III) ions. Silver, copper, nickel, cobalt, titanium, uranium, molybdenum, mercury (>lgL-1), zinc, cadmium, and bismuth interfere. Mercury(I) and tin(II) salts, if present, should be converted into the mercury(II) and tin(IV) salts, otherwise the colour is destroyed. Phosphates, arsenates, fluorides, oxalates, and tartrates interfere, since they form fairly stable complexes with iron(III) ions the influence of phosphates and arsenates is reduced by the presence of a comparatively high concentration of acid. 

Considerable amounts of zinc, cadmium, tin(IV), manganese(II), chromium(III), and smaller amounts of aluminium cause little or no interference at pH 2.4 the main interferences are lead(II), bismuth, cobalt(II), nickel, and copper(II). 

The procedure utilises eriochrome blue black RC (also called pontachrome blue black R Colour Index No. 15705) at a pH of 4,8 in a buffer solution. Beryllium gives no fluorescence and does not interfere iron, chromium, copper, nickel, and cobalt mask the fluorescence fluoride must be removed if present. The method may be adapted for the determination of aluminium in steel. 

Spectral interferences in AAS arise mainly from overlap between the frequencies of a selected resonance line with lines emitted by some other element this arises because in practice a chosen line has in fact a finite bandwidth . Since in fact the line width of an absorption line is about 0.005 nm, only a few cases of spectral overlap between the emitted lines of a hollow cathode lamp and the absorption lines of metal atoms in flames have been reported. Table 21.3 includes some typical examples of spectral interferences which have been observed.47-50 However, most of these data relate to relatively minor resonance lines and the only interferences which occur with preferred resonance lines are with copper where europium at a concentration of about 150mgL 1 would interfere, and mercury where concentrations of cobalt higher than 200 mg L 1 would cause interference. 

Several ions (e.g., manganese, iron (II), iron (III), cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, cadmium, lead, and uranyl) react with pyrocatechol violet, and to some extent are extracted together with aluminium. The interferences from these ions and other metal ions generally present in seawater could be eliminated by extraction with diethyldithiocarbamate as masking agent. With this agent most of the metal ions except aluminium were extracted into chloroform, and other metal ions did not react in the amounts commonly found in seawater. Levels of aluminium between 6 and 6.3 pg/1 were found in Pacific Ocean and Japan Sea samples by this method. 

Atomic absorption spectrometry has been used to determine caesium in seawater. The method uses preliminary chromatographic separation on a strong cation exchange resin, ammonium hexcyanocobalt ferrate, followed by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry. The procedure is convenient, versatile, and reliable, although decomposition products from the exchanger, namely iron and cobalt, can cause interference. 

As iron and cobalt both interfere with the determination of caesium, using the 852.1 nm caesium line, these elements were removed in a preliminary separation and then caesium determined. 

In another spectrophotometric procedure Motomizu [224] adds to the sample (2 litres) 40% (w/v) sodium citrate dihydrate solution (10 ml) and a 0.2% solution of 2-ethylamino-5-nitrosophenol in 0.01 M hydrochloric acid (20 ml). After 30 min, add 10% aqueous EDTA (10 ml) and 1,2-dichloroethane (20 ml), mechanically shake the mixture for 10 minutes, separate the organic phase and wash it successively with hydrochloric acid (1 2) (3 x 5 ml), potassium hydroxide (5 ml), and hydrochloric acid (1 2) (5 ml). Filter, and measure the extinction at 462 nm in a 50 mm cell. Determine the reagent blank by adding EDTA solution before the citrate solution. The sample is either set aside for about 1 day before analysis (the organic extract should then be centrifuged), or preferably it is passed through a 0.45 xm membrane-filter. The optimum pH range for samples is 5.5 - 7.5. From 0.07 to 0.12 p,g/l of cobalt was determined there is no interference from species commonly present in seawater. 

Nickel has been determined spectrophotometrically in seawater in amounts down to 0.5 xg/l as the dimethylglyoxime complex [521,522], In one procedure [521] dimethylglyoxime is added to a 750 ml sample and the pH adjusted to 9 -10. The nickel complex is extracted into chloroform. After extraction into 1M hydrochloric acid, it is oxidised with aqueous bromine, adjusted to pH 10.4, and dimethylglyoxime reagent added. It is made up to 50 ml and the extinction of the nickel complex measured at 442 nm. There is no serious interference from iron, cobalt, copper, or zinc but manganese may cause low results. 

Van den Berg [620] also reported a direct determination of sub-nanomolar levels of zinc in seawater by cathodic stripping voltammetry. The ability of ammonium pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate to produce a significant reduction peak in the presence of low concentrations of zinc was used to develop a method capable of achieving levels two orders of magnitude below those achieved with anodic stripping voltammetry. Interference from nickel and cobalt ions could be overcome by using a collection potential of 1.3 V, and interference from... 

Tominaga et al. [682,683] studied the effect of ascorbic acid on the response of these metals in seawater obtained by graphite-furnace atomic absorption spectrometry from standpoint of variation of peak times and the sensitivity. Matrix interferences from seawater in the determination of lead, magnesium, vanadium, and molybdenum were suppressed by addition of 10% (w/v) ascorbic acid solution to the sample in the furnace. Matrix effects on the determination of cobalt and copper could not be removed in this way. These workers propose a direct method for the determination of lead, manganese, vanadium, and molybdenum in seawater. 

---