Indirect complexometric determination of mercury(II) in synthetic alloys and complexes using ethanethiol as a selective masking agent

Abstract

Acomplexometric method for the determination of mercury(II) in presence of other metal ions, based on the selective masking action of ethanethiol towards mercury(II) is described. Mercury(II) present in a given sample solution is first complexed with an excess of EDTAand the unreacted EDTAis titrated against zinc sulphate solution at pH 5–6 (hexamine buffer) using xylenol orange as the indicator. An excess of a 0.3 % solution of ethanethiol is then added to displace EDTA from the Hg(II)–EDTA complex. The released EDTAis titrated with a standard zinc sulphate solution. Reproducible and accurate results are obtained for 4–85 mg of mercury(II) with a relative error of less than ± 0.46 % and coefficient of variation of not more than 0.47 %. The effects of the presence of various ions were studied. The method can be used for the analysis of mercury in its synthetic alloy mixtures and also in complexes.

Keywords

• mercury(II) determination
• ethanethiol
• complexometric determination