Surfactant-mediated extraction of iron and its spectrophotometric determination in rocks, minerals, soils, stream sediments and water samples

An extraction spectrophotometric method for iron determination in rocks, minerals, soils, stream sediments and water samples has been developed. At pH 3-4, iron (III) forms a 1:2:1 ternary complex with thiocyanate and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (Fe/SCN/CTAB) which is extracted into ethyl acetate. The readily formed purple complex is suitable for extraction spectrophotometric determination of iron in rocks and related materials from submicrogram to milligram levels. The method is free from any interference due to commonly associated ions present in the matrices of rock samples. The present method is at least fourfold more sensitive (ε=3.2×104 l mol−1 cm−1) than the conventional thiocyanate method and, in addition to the enhanced sensitivity and selectivity, it has got definite advantages over the corresponding binary thiocyanate system in terms of substantial improvement in the stability of the complex formed and broadening of Beer's law adherence range (0-6.0 mg/l). The method has been applied to a number of geological and hydrogeochemical samples for the determination of iron and the results obtained have been found to be favourably comparable with those obtained from the standard methods.