An automatic analytical procedure for the colorimetric determination of molybdenum in steel

Abstract

A spectrophotometric method for the determination of molybdenum in steel, based on the colour reaction with thiocyanate in the presence of tin(II) chloride and a titanium catalyst, has been adapted for the Technicon AutoAnalyzer. The method is suitable for most steels, but small corrections may be needed in the presence of high concentrations of chromium, cobalt and vanadium. Nickel, manganese and silicon at the usual levels do not interfere. For low-alloy steels the initial solution is identical with that required for an existing automatic method for manganese and phosphorus, but is modified when required to deal with high-speed steels containing alloying additions of tungsten. Results on standard steels are presented, and a statistical survey of long-term reproducibility is given.