Molybdenum blues

This experiment uses the molybdenum-blue method to determine the concentration of phosphate in a phosphate/sodium chloride mixture. Elow-injection analysis is used to increase the speed of analysis, allowing students to... 

The reduction of molybdate salts in acidic solutions leads to the formation of the molybdenum blues (9). Reductants include dithionite, staimous ion, hydrazine, and ascorbate. The molybdenum blues are mixed-valence compounds where the blue color presumably arises from the intervalence Mo(V) — Mo(VI) electronic transition. These can be viewed as intermediate members of the class of mixed oxy hydroxides the end members of which are Mo(VI)02 and Mo(V)0(OH)2 [27845-91-6]. MoO and Mo(VI) solutions have been used as effective detectors of reductants because formation of the blue color can be monitored spectrophotometrically. The nonprotonic oxides of average oxidation state between V and VI are the molybdenum bronzes, known for their metallic luster and used in the formulation of bronze paints (see Paint). 

Phosphate. Phosphoms occurs in water primarily as a result of natural weathering, municipal sewage, and agricultural mnoff The most common form in water is the phosphate ion. A sample containing phosphate can react with ammonium molybdate to form molybdophosphoric acid (H2P(Mo202q)4). This compound is reduced with stannous chloride in sulfuric acid to form a colored molybdenum-blue complex, which can be measured colorimetrically. SiUca and arsenic are the chief interferences. 

Phosphorus from organophosphorus compounds, which are combusted to give mainly orthophosphate, can be absorbed by either sulphuric acid or nitric acid and readily determined spectrophotometrically either by the molybdenum blue method or as the phosphovanadomolybdate (Section 17.39). 

Molybdenum blue method. When arsenic, as arsenate, is treated with ammonium molybdate solution and the resulting heteropolymolybdoarsenate (arseno-molybdate) is reduced with hydrazinium sulphate or with tin(II) chloride, a blue soluble complex molybdenum blue is formed. The constitution is uncertain, but it is evident that the molybdenum is present in a lower oxidation state. The stable blue colour has a maximum absorption at about 840 nm and shows no appreciable change in 24 hours. Various techniques for carrying out the determination are available, but only one can be given here. Phosphate reacts in the same manner as arsenate (and with about the same sensitivity) and must be absent. 

The following procedure has been recommended by the Analytical Methods Committee of the Society for Analytical Chemistry for the determination of small amounts of arsenic in organic matter.20 Organic matter is destroyed by wet oxidation, and the arsenic, after extraction with diethylammonium diethyldithiocarbamate in chloroform, is converted into the arsenomolybdate complex the latter is reduced by means of hydrazinium sulphate to a molybdenum blue complex and determined spectrophotometrically at 840 nm and referred to a calibration graph in the usual manner. 

A. Molybdenum blue method Discussion. Orthophosphate and molybdate ions condense in acidic solution to give molybdophosphoric acid (phosphomolybdic acid), which upon selective reduction (say, with hydrazinium sulphate) produces a blue colour, due to molybdenum blue of uncertain composition. The intensity of the blue colour is proportional to the amount of phosphate initially incorporated in the heteropoly acid. If the acidity at the time of reduction is 0.5M in sulphuric acid and hydrazinium sulphate is the reductant, the resulting blue complex exhibits maximum absorption at 820-830 nm. 

B. Phosphovanadomolybdate method Discussion. This second method is considered to be slightly less sensitive than the previous molybdenum blue method, but it has been particularly useful for phosphorus determinations carried out by means of the Schoniger oxygen flask method (Section 3.31). The phosphovanadomolybdate complex formed between the phosphate, ammonium vanadate, and ammonium molybdate is bright yellow in colour and its absorbance can be measured between 460 and 480 nm. 

Discussion. Small quantities of dissolved silicic acid react with a solution of a molybdate in an acid medium to give an intense yellow coloration, due probably to the complex molybdosilicic acid H4[SiMo12O40]. The latter may be employed as a basis for the colorimetric determination of silicate (absorbance measurements at 400 nm). It is usually better to reduce the complex acid to molybdenum blue (the composition is uncertain) a solution of a mixture of l-amino-2-naphthol-4-sulphonic acid and sodium hydrogensulphite solution is a satisfactory reducing agent. 

Apparent indicator constant 264, 267 Apparent stability constant 59 Aqua regia 111 Arc alternating current, 764 direct current, 763, 771 sensitivities of elements, (T), 766 Aromatic hydrocarbons analysis of binary mixtures, 715 Arsenates, D. of (ti) 357 Arsenic, D. of as silver arsenate, (ti) 357 as trisulphide, (g) 448 by iodine, (am) 634, (ti) 397 by molybdenum blue method, (s) 681 by potassium bromate, (ti) 406 by potassium iodate, (ti) 401 in presence of antimony, (s) 724 Arsenic(III) oxide as primary standard, 261... 

Structural and electronic properties of some poly molybdates reducible to molybdenum blues. R. I. Buckley and R. J. H. Clark, Coord. Chem. Rev., 1985, 65, 167 (104). 

Molybdenum, tris(phenylenedithio)-structure, 1,63 Molybdenum alkoxides physical properties, 2,346 synthesis, 2,339 Molybdenum blue liquid-liquid extraction, 1,548 Molybdenum cofactor, 6,657 Molybdenum complexes acrylonitrile, 2,263 alkoxides, 3,1307 alkoxy carbonyl reactions, 2,355 alkyl, 3,1307 alkyl alkoxy reactions, 2,358 alkyl peroxides oxidation catalyses, 6,342 allyl, 3,1306... 

There also exists interference from diphosphoric acid, other more highly condensed phosphoric acids, and their organic derivatives. The free phosphoric acid can be determined as a heteropolyacid complex of phosphoric acid and ammonium molybdate. Afterward the complex is reduced by stannum II chloride to molybdenum blue. The amount of this dye can be measured photometricly at 625 nm. Organic derivatives of phosphoric acid and condensed phosphoric acids do not interfere with this method. 

A commonly used procedure for the determination of phosphate in seawater and estuarine waters uses the formation of the molybdenum blue complex at 35-40 °C in an autoanalyser and spectrophotometric evaluation of the resulting colour. Unfortunately, when applied to seawater samples, depending on the chloride content of the sample, peak distortion or even negative peaks occur which make it impossible to obtain reliable phosphate values (Fig. 2.7). This effect can be overcome by the replacement of the distilled water-wash solution used in such methods by a solution of sodium chloride of an appropriate concentration related to the chloride concentration of the sample. The chloride content of the wash solution need not be exactly equal to that of the sample. For chloride contents in the sample up to 18 000 mg/1 (i.e., seawater),... 

Deans [192] have proposed a method for the colorimetric determination of traces of phosphorus with molybdenum blue, making use of the laser-induced thermal lensing effect. The procedure is described, and the results obtained on samples of sea water and lake water are presented. 

Yoshimura et al. [193] carried out microdeterminations of phosphate by gel-phase colorimetry with molybdenum blue. In this method phosphate reacted with molybdate in acidic conditions to produce 12-phosphomolybdate. The blue species of phosphomolybdate were reduced by ascorbic acid in the presence of antimonyl ions and adsorbed on to Sephadex G-25 gel beads. Attenuation at 836 and 416 nm (adsorption maximum and minimum wavelengths) was measured, and the difference was used to determine trace levels of phosphate. The effect of nitrate, sulfate, silicic acid, arsenate, aluminium, titanium, iron, manganese, copper, and humic acid on the determination were examined. 

Eberlein and Kattner [194] described an automated method for the determination of orthophosphate and total dissolved phosphorus in the marine environment. Separate aliquots of filtered seawater samples were used for the determination orthophosphate and total dissolved phosphorus in the concentration range 0.01-5 xg/l phosphorus. The digestion mixture for total dissolved phosphorus consisted of sodium hydroxide (1.5 g), potassium peroxidisulfate (5 g) and boric acid (3 g) dissolved in doubly distilled water (100 ml). Seawater samples (50 ml) were mixed with the digestion reagent, heated under pressure at 115-120 °C for 2 h, cooled, and stored before determination in the autoanalyser system. For total phosphorus, extra ascorbic acid was added to the aerosol water of the autoanalyser manifold before the reagents used for the molybdenum blue reaction were added. For measurement of orthophosphate, a phosphate working reagent composed of sulfuric acid, ammonium molyb-... 

Various approaches to the analysis of dissolved silicon have been tried. Most of them are based on the formation of /J-molybdosilic acid [ 199-203 ]. Dissolved silicon exists in seawater almost entirely as undissociated orthosilicic acid. This form and its dimer, termed reactive silicate , combine with molybdosilicic acid to form a- and /I-molybdosilicic acid [180]. The molybdosilicic acid can be reduced to molybdenum blue, which is determined photometrically [206]. The photometric determination of silicate as molybdenum blue is sufficiently sensitive for most seawater samples. It is amenable to automated analysis by segmented continuous flow analysers [206-208]. Most recent analyses of silicate in seawater have, therefore, used this chemistry. Furthermore, reactive silicate is probably the only silicon species in seawater that can be used by siliceous organisms [204]. 

This analytical procedure is based on an optimum analysis condition for segmented continuous flow analysis. The sample is combined with a molybdate solution at a pH between 1.4 and 1.8 to form the //-molybdosilicic acid. After an appropriate time for reaction, a solution of oxalic acid is added, which transforms the excess molybdate to a non-reducible form. The oxalic acid also suppresses the interference from phosphate by decomposing phosphomolyb-dic acid. Finally, a reductant is added to form molybdenum blue. Both ascorbic acid and stannous chloride were tested as reductants. 

Johnson and Pilson [229] have described a spectrophotometric molybdenum blue method for the determination of phosphate, arsenate, and arsenite in estuary water and sea water. A reducing reagent is used to lower the oxidation state of any arsenic present to +3, which eliminates any absorbance caused by molybdoarsenate, since arsenite will not form the molybdenum complex. This results in an absorbance value for phosphate only. 

Particularly in autoanalyser methods this wide variation in chloride content of the sample can lead to serious salt errors and, indeed, in the extreme case, can lead to negative peaks in samples that are known to contain ammonia. Salt errors originate because of the changes of pH, ionic strength and optical properties with salinity. This phenomenon is not limited to ammonia determination by autoanalyser methods it has, as will be discussed later, also been observed in the automated determination of phosphate in estuarine samples by molybdenum blue methods. 

In the method for [17] inorganic arsenic the sample is treated with sodium borohydride added at a controlled rate (Fig. 10.1). The arsine evolved is absorbed in a solution of iodine and the resultant arsenate ion is determined photometrically by a molybdenum blue method. For seawater the range, standard deviation, and detection limit are 1—4 xg/l, 1.4%, and 0.14 pg/1, respectively for potable waters they are 0-800 pg/1, about 1% (at 2 pg/1 level), and 0.5 pg/1, respectively. Silver and copper cause serious interference at concentrations of a few tens of mg/1 however, these elements can be removed either by preliminary extraction with a solution of dithizone in chloroform or by ion exchange. 

For ammonia, the commonly employed molybdenum blue method was examined. In this case, there were a number of issues. For example, the standard method requires the use of phenol and hypochlorite. Phenol is unsuitable for health, safety and environmental reasons, and hypochlorite is commonly regarded as unstable. We found that salicylate could be substituted for phenol, with little affect on sensitivity and a relatively small movement of the absorbance maximum, and hypochlorite is stable if stored carefully, and there is very low contamination by certain catalytic metals that accelerate decomposition, such as copper and iron [20]. 

This ammonium phosphomolybdate complex is yellow, but if mildly reduced by ascorbic acid in the presence of potassium antimonyl tartrate a solution of stable bluish-purple color ( molybdenum blue ) develops after about ten minutes, which has its strongest absorption at 882 pm (Fig. 4.6). Other mild reducing agents have also been used, including tin(II) chloride, or hydrazine sulfate, which give maximum absorbances at slightly different wavelengths. The intensity of the color which develops is linearly proportional to the... 

The limitations of the Gutzert method for determining arsenic are well known. The spectrophotometric molybdenum blue or silver diethyl/ dithiocarbamate procedures tend to suffer from poor precision and accuracy as shown in collaborative studies [115, 116]. 

Table 12.13 compares results obtained by this method with those obtained by a molybdenum blue method of spectrophotometry [115, 116]. Values obtained by atomic absorption spectrometry are higher than those obtained by the molybdenum blue method and this is believed to reflect the greater inherent accuracy of the former method. A UK standard method also... 

Table 12.13 Comparison of results for soils by atomic absorption spectrometry and molybdenum blue methods... 

Sample Arsenic found yg g 1 atomic absorption molybdenum blue... 

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