Spectrophotometric determination of trace amounts of iron(III) with norfloxacin as complexing reagent.

The complexation of iron(III) with norfloxacin in acidic solution at 25 degrees C, at an ionic strength of about 0.3 M and a pH of 3.0 has been studied. The water-soluble complex formed, which exhibits an absorption maximum at 377 nm, was used for the spectrophotometric determination of trace amounts of iron(III). The molar absorptivity was 9.05 x 10(3) I mol-1 cm-1 and the Sandell sensitivity 6.2 ng cm-2 of iron(III) per 0.001 A. The formation constant (Kf) was determined spectrophotometrically and was found to be 4.0 x 10(8) at 25 degrees C. The calibration graph was rectilinear over the range 0.25-12.0 p.p.m. of iron(III) and the regression line equation was A = 0.163c - 0.00042 with a correlation coefficient of 0.9998 (n = 9). Common cations, except cerium (IV), did not interfere with the determination. The results obtained for the determination of iron(III) using the described procedure and the thiocyanate method were compared statistically by means of the Student t-test and no significant difference was found.