A novel catalytic kinetic method for the determination of mercury(ii) in water samples

Mercury(ii) ions act as catalyst in the substitution of cyanide ion in hexacyanoruthenate(ii) by pyrazine (Pz) in an acidic medium. This property of Hg(ii) has been utilized for its determination in aqueous solutions. The progress of reaction was followed spectrophotometrically by measuring the increase in absorbance of the yellow colour product, [Ru(CN)(5)Pz](3-)at 370 nm (lambda(max),epsilon= 4.2 x 10(3)M(-1)s(-1)) under the optimized reaction conditions; 5.0 x 10(-5)M [Ru(CN)(6)(4-)], 7.5 x 10(-4)M [Pz], pH 4.00 +/- 0.02, ionic strength (I) = 0.05 M (KCl) and temp. 45.0 +/- 0.1 degrees C. The proposed method is based on the fixed time procedure under optimum reaction conditions. The linear regression (calibration) equations between the absorbance at fixed times (t= 15, 20 and 25 min) and [Hg(ii)] were established in the range of 1.0 to 30.0 x 10(-6)M. The detection limit was found to be 1.5 x 10(-7)M of Hg(ii). The effect of various foreign ions on the proposed method was also studied and discussed. The method was applied for the determination of Hg(ii) in different wastewater samples. The present method is simple, rapid and sensitive for the determination of Hg(ii) in trace amount in the environmental samples.