A colorimetric method of As3+ ion detection and quantification using hand-held Lovibond photometers

Abstract

Among the existing forms of arsenic, As3+ compounds are the most abundant and toxic in the environment. In the present study, we design a colorimetric method that selectively detects arsenite ions in aqueous media using fuchsine as an indicator. The novelty of this method lies in the use of Lovibond MD-610 hand-held photometer in order to determine the absorptivity at a wavelength of 560 nm. Subsequently a calibration curve for various known As3+ concentrations was plotted using Lambert-Beer's law. The arsenite concentrations studied ranged from 0.2-10 ppm.