Extraction-spectrofluorimetric determination of silver ion using benzothiacrown ether and eosin

Abstract

As benzothiacrown ether exhibited high selectivities for silver ion over several heavy metals on cation extraction, silver ion spectrofluorimetry was carried out by using an ion-pair extraction system with benzothiacrown ether as the ligand and eosin Y as the fluorescent anion. It was possible to determine 2–10 p.p.b. of silver ion, and the method was subject to only low interferences by alkali, alkaline earth and heavy metal ions, except mercury(II) ion. This method was successfully applied to the determination of trace amounts of silver ion in river water.