Catalytic kinetic spectrophotometry for the determination of trace amount of oxalic acid in biological samples with oxalic acid–rhodamine B–potassium dichromate system

A new catalytic kinetic spectrophotometric method was proposed for determining trace oxalic acid based on the catalytic effect of oxalate on the oxidation of potassium dichromate with rhodamin B in 0.10 M of sulfuric acid. Good linearity is obtained over the concentration range 0.40–6.0 μg/mL of oxalic acid. After the reactions of the catalytic and non-catalytic systems were terminated by using 2.00 mL of 4 M sodium hydroxide solution, they can be stable for 3 h at room temperature. The apparent activation energy of the catalytic reaction is 12.44 kJ/mol. The effect of 50 coexisting substances was observed. The method was used to determine trace oxalic acid in tea, spinach and urine samples with satisfactory results.