Flow-injection determination of iron(III) in soil by biamperometry using two independent redox couples

A flow-injection biamperometric method for the determination of iron(III) has been described. The detector consists of two chambers separated by a salt bridge, and one platinum wire working electrode is embedded in each chamber, respectively. When iron(III) solution and hydrogen peroxide solution simultaneously flow through two chambers, the reduction of iron(III) at one platinum electrode is associated with the oxidation of hydrogen peroxide at the other platinum electrode, forming such a system as similar to a reversible couple one. The biamperometric system can perform the determination of iron(III) without any external potential difference. The linear relationship is obtained from 1.0 × 10−6 to 1.0 × 10−4 mol l−1 with a detection limit of 6.0 × 10−7 mol l−1. The proposed method exhibits the satisfactory reproducibility with a relative standard derivation (R.S.D.) of 1.4% for 17 successive determinations of 2.0 × 10−5 mol l−1 iron(III) and is applied to the determination of iron(III) in soil.