On-line Electrochemical Oxidation of Cr(III) for the Determination of Total Cr by Flow Injection-Solid Phase Spectrophotometry

A novel on-line oxidation method of ultra-trace Cr(III) dissolved in natural water has been developed using a flow electrolysis cell. This method was successfully applied to the determination of the total Cr concentration by flow injection-solid phase spectrophotometry using diphenylcarbazide as a coloring agent. With the applied potential of 1.35 V (vs. Ag/AgCl) and the flow rate of 0.80 cm3 min-1, Cr(III) was quantitatively oxidized to Cr(VI) at room temperature. The total Cr concentration of sub-µg dm-3 in 3 - 4 samples could be determined within 1 h using an aqueous sample volume of 7.1 cm3. The analytical values of the total Cr concentration in natural water were in good agreement with those obtained by ICP-MS. The detection limit of the proposed method was 0.014 µg dm-3 (3σ, n = 7). This method could be applied to the specific determination of Cr(III) and Cr(VI) in river water samples.