Synthesis of N-o-methylphenyl-N'-(sodium p-aminobenzene-sulfonate) thiourea and its chromogenic reaction with palladium(II).

A new chromogenic reagent, N-o-methylphenyl-N'-(sodium p-aminobenzenesulfonate)thiourea (MSAT), has been synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, (1)H-NMR, FT-IR and UV-Vis spectra. Based on the absorption spectrum of the colored complex of MSAT with palladium(II), a novel spectrophotometric method for the determination of palladium has been developed. In a pH 4.0 - 5.5 HAc-NaAc buffer solution, palladium(II) reacted with MSAT to form a stable yellow water-soluble complex with an apparent molar absorptivity of epsilon = 2.04 x 10(5) L mol(-1) cm(-1) at the maximum absorption of 318.0 nm. Beer's law was obeyed in the concentration range of 1.2 - 11.8 microg per 25 mL for palladium(II) with a correlation coefficient of 0.9997. The probable interfering ions and their tolerable limits have also been investigated in detail. The proposed method is simple, rapid, and sensitive, and has been applied to the determination of palladium in anode mud and ore samples with satisfactory results.