Reverse flow injection spectrophotometric determination of iodate and iodide in table salt

A very simple and sensitive reverse flow injection method is described for the determination of iodate and iodide. The iodate reacts with excess iodide in acidic medium to form tri-iodide, which can be spectrophotometrically monitored at 351 nm, and the absorbance is directly related to the concentration of iodate in the sample. The determination of iodide is based on oxidizing iodide to iodate. The calibration curve is linear in the range of 0.02–3.0 μg ml−1 I with r2=0.9998, and the limit of detection is 0.008 μg ml−1 I. The chemical and flow injection variables were studied and optimized to make the procedure suitable for quantitating iodate and iodide in table salts. It is shown that the reverse flow injection analysis could greatly improve the sensitivity and precision for determination of iodate with a relative standard deviation of 0.9%. A complete analysis, including sampling and washing, could be performed in 35 s. The procedure was applied successfully to the determination of iodate and iodide in table salts, and the results were statistically compared with results determined by standard iodometry method.