Potentiometric determination of milligram amounts of organolead in petroleum

Abstract

For the determination of organolead in petroleum two methods for converting, quantitatively, organolead into lead chloride, and a potentiometric titration method for the measurement of lead chloride, have been developed. The sensitivity, precision and accuracy of the two methods were investigated by analysing a series of standard lead nitrate and synthetic standard solutions. The limits of detection achieved varied from 2.07 × 10^–1 to 2.07 × 10^–4 g per 100 ml using one method and from 6.22 × 10^–1 to 1.66 × 10^–4 g per 100 ml using the other method, with an average percentage error of 1–3% and a relative standard deviation that did not exceed ±0.6% for both methods. These two methods were applied successfuly to the determination of lead in petroleum and its fractions before and after treatments.