Extraction-atomic-absorption spectrophotometric determination of antimony by generation of its hydride in non-aqueous media

Abstract

A method for covalent hydride generation in a non-aqueous extraction phase is proposed. The hydride generation is carried out in an aliquot of metal-complex extraction solution by sodium tetrahydroborate(III) in N,N-dimethylformamide solution and anhydrous acetic acid. The proposed method gives improved sensitivity, eleminates interferences and enables hydride generation of difficult elements to be carried out. Antimony is extracted by ammonium pyrrolidine-1-carbodithioate into chloroform and after hydride generation by the proposed method, it is determined by flame AAS. The method is applied to the determination of antimony in BCS standard steels with good accuracy and precision.