Kinetic spectrophotometric method for trace determination of thiocyanate based on its inhibitory effect

A kinetic spectrophotometric method for the determination of thiocyanate, based on its inhibitory effect on silver(I) catalyzed substitution of cyanide ion, by phenylhydrazine in hexacyanoferrate(II) is described. Thiocyanate ions form strong complexes with silver(I) catalyst which is used as the basis for its determination at trace level. The progress of reaction was monitored, spectrophotometrically, at 488 nm (λmax of [Fe(CN)5PhNHNH2]3−, complex) under the optimum reaction conditions at: 2.5 × 10−3 M [Fe(CN)6]4−, 1.0 × 10−3 M [PhNHNH2], 8.0 × 10−7 M [Ag+], pH 2.8 ± 0.02, ionic strength (μ) 0.02 M (KNO3) and temperature 30 ± 0.1 °C. A linear relationship obtained between absorbance (measured at 488 nm at different times) and inhibitor concentration, under specified conditions, has been used for the determination of [thiocyanate] in the range of 0.8–8.0 × 10−8 M with a detection limit of 2 × 10−9 M. The standard deviation and percentage error have been calculated and reported with each datum. A most plausible mechanistic scheme has been proposed for the reaction. The values of equilibrium constants for complex formation between catalyst–inhibitor (KCI), catalyst–substrate (Ks) and Michaelis–Menten constant (Km) have been computed from the kinetic data. The influence of possible interference by major cations and anions on the determination of thiocyanate and their limits has been investigated.