Flow injection analysis of water. Part 1: Automatic preconcentration determination of sulphate, ammonia and iron(II)/iron(III)

This paper describes a simple flow-injection (FI) manifold for the determination of a variety of species in industrial water. The chemical systems involved in the determination of ammonia (formation of Indophenol Blue), sulfate (precipitation with Ba(II)), and iron (complexation with 1,10-phenanthroline with the help of a prior redox reaction for speciation) were selected so that a common manifold could be used for the sequential determination of batches of each analyte. A microcolumn of a suitable ion exchange material was used for on-line preconcentration of each analyte prior to injection; linear ranges for the determination of the analytes at the ng/ml levels were obtained with good reproducibility. The manifold and methods are ready for full automation.