A Simple Potentiometric Titration Method to Determine Concentration of Ferrate(VI) in Strong Alkaline Solutions

Abstract

A new potentiometric titration method using a Pt wire as an indicator electrode was developed for quantitative determination of ferrate(VI) in the submillimolar to millimolar concentration range in a strong alkaline solution. A Ag/AgCl electrode was the reference electrode and the titrant used was chromium(III) hydroxide solution. The developed method is relatively simple and faster than the colorimetric titration technique. The method eliminates human error associated with the endpoint detection and increases accuracy of the results with respect to the colorimetric titration. The method was applied to study the decay of synthesized ferrate(VI) in alkaline solution.

Keywords:

• Accuracy
• Oxyiron(VI)
• Potentiometry
• Stability
• Titration

Acknowledgments

Authors wish to acknowledge partial support of NATO Collaborative Linkage Grant (CBP.EAP.CLG.983119). V. K. Sharma also acknowledges the partial support of U.S. National Science Foundation grant (CHE 0706834). Authors wish to thanks anonymous reviewers and editor for their comments, which improved the paper.