A simple spectrophotometric method for determination of gold (III) in aqueous samples.

The method, for rapid determination of trace Au in natural water, involves reacting Au with 3,3’, 5,5’-tetramethylbenzidine hydrochloride (TMBH) in acidic solution followed by UV-vis spectrophotometric analysis. Under optimum conditions a good linear calibration graph was obtained over the concentration range of 100-2 000 micro-g/l Au (III). The percent relative standard deviation for the determination of 1 000 micrograms/l Au was 10% and the detection limit based on a signal-to-noise ratio of 3 was 50 micrograms/l. The method was successfully applied to Au-spiked and real aqueous samples.
The method, for rapid determination of trace Au in natural water, involves reacting Au with 3,3’, 5,5’-tetramethylbenzidine hydrochloride (TMBH) in acidic solution followed by UV-vis spectrophotometric analysis. Under optimum conditions a good linear calibration graph was obtained over the concentration range of 100-2 000 micro-g/l Au (III). The percent relative standard deviation for the determination of 1 000 micrograms/l Au was 10% and the detection limit based on a signal-to-noise ratio of 3 was 50 micrograms/l. The method was successfully applied to Au-spiked and real aqueous samples.