Atomic absorption spectrometric determination of ultra trace amounts of zinc after preconcentration with the ion pair of 2-(5-bromo-2-pyridylazo)-5-diethylaminophenol and ammonium tetraphenylborate on microcrystalline naphthalene or by column method.

Zinc is quantitatively retained on 2-(5-bromo-2-pyridylazo)-5-diethylamminophenol (5-BrPADAP)-ammonium tetraphenylborate with microcrystalline naphthalene or by a column method in the pH range 7.5-9.0 from a large volume of aqueous solutions of various samples. After filtration, the solid mass consisting of the zinc complex and naphthalene was dissolved with 5 ml of dimethylflarmamide and the metal was determined by atomic absorption spectrometry. Zinc complex can alternatively be quantitatively adsorbed on ammonium tetrphenylborate-naphthalene adsorbent packed in a column and determined similarly. The calibration curve is linear 0.05-4.0 ppb in dimethylformamide solution. Eight replicate detenninations of 1.0 ppb of zinc gave a mean absorbance of 0.124 with a relative standard deviation of 1.3%. The sensitivity for 1% absorption was 0.035 ppb. The interference of a large number of anions and cations has been studied and the optimized conditions developed were utilized for the trace determination of zinc in various standard samples.