Micelle-stabilized liquid room-temperature phosphorimetry for metals: The micellar reaction of gallium with 7-iodo-hydroxyquinoline-5-sulfonic acid and its application to the metal determination

Abstract

The Ga(III)-7-iodo-8-hydroxyquinoline-5-sulfonic acid complex in the presence of suitable micelles and with sodium sulfite as oxygen scavenger exhibited strong phosphorescence at room temperature in aqueous solutions. This micellar reaction provides the basis for a convenient phosphorimetric determination of traces of gallium. Different types of micelles showed their maximum enhancing effects at different pH ranges, affording greater convenience for various analytical purposes. A phosphorimetric procedure with surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide as enhancing agent is proposed. The detection limit for gallium was 5 ng/ml and the calibration graph was rectilinear in the range of 5 to 600 ng/ml. The relative standard deviation was 4% at 50 ng/ml level. The applicability of this room-temperature phosphorimetric procedure to multi-component analyses for the group III elements, Al(III), Ga(III), and In(III), was demonstrated. Kalman filtering was used to deconvolute the phosphorescence spectra of mixtures of aluminium and gallium allowing the simultaneous determination of both metals with satisfactory results.