Measurement of trace manganese (II) by the catalytic kinetic spectrophotometric method

A new kinetic spectrophotometric method is developed for the measurement of manganese (II) in water. The method is based on the catalytic effect of manganese (II) with the oxidation of weak acid brilliant blue dye (RAWL) by KIO₄ using the Nitrilo triacetic acid (NTA) as an activation reagent. The optimum conditions obtained are 40 mgL⁻¹ RAWL, 1×10⁻⁴molL⁻¹ KIO₄, 2×10⁻⁴ molL⁻¹ Nitrilo triacetic acid (NTA), pH = 5.8, the reaction time of 3.00 min and the temperature of 20.0 °C. Under the optimum conditions, the proposed method allows the measurement of manganese (II) in a range of 0–50.0 ng mL⁻¹ and with a detection limit of down to 0.158 ng mL⁻¹. The recovery efficiency in measuring the standard manganese (II) solution is in a range of 98.5%–102%, and the RSD is in a range of 0.76%–1.25%. The new method has been successfully applied to the measurement of manganese (II) in both fresh water and seawater samples with satisfying results. Moreover, few cations and anions interfere with the measurement of manganese (II). Compared with other kinetic catalytic methods and instrumental methods, the proposed method shows fairly good selectivity and sensitivity, low cost, cheapness, low detection limit and rapidity. It can be applied on boats easily.