Extraction-spectrophotometric determination of hydrogen sulphide

Abstract

A sensitive spectrophotometric method for the determination of trace amounts of hydrogen sulphide (H₂S) after fixing in a modified zinc acetate-disodium ethylenediaminetetraacetate-sodium hydroxide solution is described. The fixed H₂S is stable for 3 d. The reaction of iodate with H₂S in the presence of acid and an excess of chloride leads to the formation of ICl which is stabilised as ICl₂^–. The species formed reacts with 2′,7′-dichlorofluorescein to form 2′,7′-dichloro-4′,5′-diiodofluorescein which is extracted into a mixture of 15% isoamyl acetate in isoamyl alcohol. The colour system obeys Beer's law in the range 0–2.5 µg of H₂S. The coefficient of variation is 4.5% for ten determinations of 2.0 µg of H₂S. The effect of interfering gases on the determination is discussed. The method was applied to the determination of residual amounts of H₂S present in a laboratory fume cupboard and the results obtained were compared with those given by the widely used Methylene Blue method. The method can be used to determine down to 0.3 µg of H₂S.