Simultaneous kinetic-spectrophotometric determination of sulfide and sulfite and genetic algorithim variable selection using partial least squares calibration

Simultaneous multicomponent analysis is usually carried out using multivariate calibration models, such as the partial least squares (PLS) one, that utilize the full spectrum. It has been shown by both experimental and theoretical considerations that better results can by obtained by proper selection of the spectral range to be included in calculations. A genetic algorithm (GA) is one of the most popular methods for selecting variables for PLS calibration of mixtures with almost identical spectra without loss of predictive capability. In this work, a simple and precise method for rapid and accurate simultaneous determination of sulfide and sulfite ions based on the addition reaction of these ions with new fuchsin at pH 8 and 25°C using PLS regression and GA for variable selection is proposed. The concentrations of sulfide ions varied between 0.05–2.50 and 0.15–2.00 μg/mL, respectively. A series of model solutions containing different concentrations of sulfide and sulfite were used to check the predictive ability of GA-PLS models. The root mean square error of prediction with PLS on the whole data set was 0.19 μg/mL for sulfide and 0.09 μg/mL for sulfite. After the application of GA, these values reduced to 0.04 and 0.03 μg/mL, respectively.