Extractive spectrophotometric method for the determination of molybdenum (VI) in environmental samples

Abstract

An extractive spectrophotometric method has been developed for determination of molybdenum (VI) usi ng newly synthesized reagent, N'-(2-hydroxybenzylidene)-3-(4-o-tolylpiperazin-1-yl) propanehydrazone (HTP). Molybdenum (VI) forms a yellow coloured water insoluble complex with HTP reagent in the acidic medium. The formed water insoluble complex is extractable in chloroform solvent and the complex shows maximum absorbance at max 389 nm. Under optimum conditions, Beer's law is obeyed in the range 1.918 - 19.18 μg mL^-1 of Molybdenum (VI). The molar absorptivity and Sandell's sensitivity for the complex is found to be 4.903 x 10 ⁴ L mol^-1 cm^-1 and 0.02 μg. cm^- 2 respectively. The interference effect of various diverse ions has been studied. The complex shows 1:1 [Mo (VI): HTP] stoichiometry with stability constant of 8.29 x 10⁶. The developed method has been employed for the determination of molybdenum (VI) in synthetic samples and in alloys.