Automatic potentiometric micro-determination of basic nitrogen in organic compounds

Abstract

Basic nitrogen is determined at the milligram level by potentiometric titration in a non-aqueous medium. Acetic acid is a suitable solvent for substances with very different structures, except from some amino acids that are soluble in perchloric acid and may therefore be determined by back-titration. The behaviour of some organic nitrogen compounds that do not exhibit a basic character because of a resonance phenomena, contrary to what is expected, is also explained. Titration graphs with sharp inflection points allow exact determinations for all the compounds examined.