A coulometric flow cell for in-line generation of reagent, titrant or standard solutions

A universal and easily ON–OFF time operated coulometric flow cell for generation of chemicals is proposed. The cell can be used for generation of reagents, titrants or standard solutions, and can be coupled to analytical equipments in combination with flow systems for generation of micro-quantity amounts of chemicals in a wide concentration range. Platinum wire electrodes and other common laboratory available materials were employed in the cell assembly. The application of the cell for analytical purposes was illustrated by employing it for generating triiodide ions as a carrier in a flow injection analysis system applied to the analysis of dipyrone in pharmaceuticals, and as a titrant in a flow-batch analysis system applied for analysis of ascorbic acid in natural orange juice samples. Preliminary studies demonstrate that such a flow cell is suitable to allow the use of unstable reagents in analytical chemistry, since they can be generated in a closed system and promptly used in subsequent reactions. In addition, it offers advantages of saving chemicals, time and specially the laborious calibrating standard solutions preparation task of routine laboratories. Taking in account its analytical performance, the proposed cell promises to be an important tool in analytical chemistry with a great competition potential as compared to the other ones proposed in the literature.