Application of two-way decomposition methods in the simultaneous determination of cobalt, nickel and iron by coupling stopped-flow techniques and CCD detection

The simultaneous kinetic determination of cobalt, nickel, and iron with principal component regression (PCR) and partial least squares (PLS) methods is discussed. PCR and PLS extract information from kinetic differences between the complexes of these metals after their reaction with a common ligand. The coupling of stopped-flow (SF) with CCD detection resulted in massive data quantities making the use of data-reduction techniques not only interesting, but also necessary. Initial rates of the reactions were calculated using an algorithm, whose description is given somewhere else [Anal. Chim. Acta 423 (2000) 277]. Both methods were successfully applied to the simultaneous determination of these metals in alloys, and a comparative study of the results was undertaken. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.