A highly sensitive spectrophotometric determination of chromium using leuco Xylene cyanol FF

A highly sensitive and selective spectrophotometric method was developed for the determination of trace amounts of chromium with leuco Xylene cynaol FF. The method is based on the oxidation of leuco Xylene cyanol FF (LXCFF) to its blue form of Xylene cyanol FF by chromium(VI) in sulphuric acid medium (pH 1.2–2.4), the absorbance of the formed dye is measured in an acetate buffer medium (pH 3.0–4.6) at 615 nm. The method obeys Beerʹs law in the concentration range of 0.05–0.45 μg ml−l chromium, having molar absorptivity and Sandellʹs sensitivity of 8.23×104 l mol−1 cm−l and 0.00063 μg cm−2, respectively. All the variables were studied in order to optimise the reaction conditions. The developed method has been successfully applied to the determination of chromium in steels, pharmaceutical samples, industrial effluents, natural water, and soil.