Spectrophotometric determination of Blue Procion HEGN in effluents of textile industry exploiting the dye aggregation effect and flow injection analysis.

A new spectrophotometric method involving flow injection analysis and textile dye aggregation effect is proposed. The method is based on the aggregation effect of Blue Procion HEGN at pH 3, which relocates its maximum absorption wavelength from 620 to 776 nm, avoiding the interference of other blue textile dyes. For this task, a simple and robust flow injection system was designed, which became a very stable analytical method. When the system was applied to Blue Procion determination in effluent of textile industry, precise results were observed (RSD < 2% within 1.0 and 5.0 mg l(-1) HEGN). The analytical frequency was 80 measurements per hour; the analytical curve was linear from 1.0 to 5.0 mg l(-1) HEGN; the detection limit considering three times the standard deviation of the blank solution (n = 10) was estimated as 0.03 mg l(-1) HEGN; and recoveries between 95% and 105% were found. The system consumes 20 mg of sodium citrate and 125 microl of the sample per determination. No baseline drift was observed during extended (5 h) operation periods.