Kinetic-spectrophotometric determination of trace amounts of silver using the oxidation of thionine with peroxodisulfate.

A simple, rapid and sensitive method has been developed for determination of traces of silver(I) (0.2 - 13 ng mL(-1)) based on its catalytic effect on the oxidation of thionine by peroxodisulfate in the presence of 1 - 10 phenanthroline as an activator. The reaction is monitored spectrophotometrically by measuring the decrease in absorbance of thionine at 600 nm by the fixed time method. The detection limit is 0.098 ng mL(-1) and the relative standard deviation for 0.5, 3.0, 5.0 and 10 ng ml(-1) Ag(I) are 4.1, 1.37, 1.06 and 0.64%, respectively. The method is free from most interferences and it was applied to determination of silver in photographic solutions and well-water samples.