Solid phase spectrophotometry for the determination of cobalt in pharmaceutical preparations

Abstract

A new sensitive method exploiting solid-phase spectrophotometry is proposed for the determination of cobalt in pharmaceutical preparations. The chromogenic reagent 1-(2-thiazolylazo)-2-naphthol (TAN) was immobilized on C18 bonded silica loaded into a home-made cell with 1.5 mm of optical path for cobalt determination. Cobalt(II) reacts with TAN on C18 material, at pH 6.0–7.5, to give a coloured complex which has maximum absorption at 572 nm. In this way, the sample was passed through the cell and Co(II) ions were quantitatively retained on the solid-phase. After the direct measurement of light-absorption in the solid phase, only the cobalt was eluted with 0.1 mol L−1 hydrochloric acid. The cell was washed with water and then another sample solution could be passed through the cell. The procedure allowed the determination of cobalt in the range of 10–160 μg L−1 with coefficient of variation of 4.7% (n=10) and apparent molar absorptivity of 2.62 × 106 L mol−1 cm−1 using sample volume of 3-mL.