Thajee K, Wang L, Grudpan K, Bakker E. Colorimetric ionophore-based coextraction titrimetry of potassium ions.
Anal Chim Acta 2018;
1029:37-43. [PMID:
29907288 DOI:
10.1016/j.aca.2018.05.012]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/13/2018] [Revised: 05/02/2018] [Accepted: 05/03/2018] [Indexed: 12/29/2022]
Abstract
Potassium ion concentration can be successfully determined volumetrically by moving the titration from a homogeneous phase to a two phase solvent system. This is because potassium can be readily complexed in a selective and thermodynamically stable manner by ionophores such as valinomycin. Previous work demonstrated the successful titration of potassium by ion-exchange into an organic phase containing valinomycin, but the sample itself served as titrant, which is not sufficiently practical for routine applications. This problem is overcome here by a co-extraction based approach, with the sodium salt of the water soluble lipophilic anion tetraphenylborate as titrant. The extraction of potassium tetraphenylborate must be preferred over that of the hydrogen ion-tetraphenylborate pair, which is used to indicate the endpoint by the presence of a lipophilic indicator in the organic phase. This is controlled by the sample pH, which for the conditions chosen here is around 7 for optimal sharpness and accuracy of the endpoint. The approach is demonstrated in a colorimetric detection approach, by use of a tethered digital camera and subsequent automated analysis of the resulting image files. The potassium analysis in a variety of samples is successfully demonstrated, including blood serum.
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