Sequential injection determination of nitrate in vegetables by spectrophotometry with inline cadmium reduction

Sara M. Oliveira, Teresa I. M. S. Lopes, António O. S. S. Rangel*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

A sequential injection system for the determination of nitrate (NO 3-) in vegetables was developed to automate this determination, allowing for substantially reduced reagent consumption and generated waste using low-cost equipment. After extraction with water and filtration, the extracted nitrate is reduced inline to nitrite in a copperized cadmium (Cd) column and determined as nitrite. According to the Griess-Ilosvay reaction, nitrate is diazotized with sulfanilamide and coupled with N-(1-naphtyl)-ethylenediamine dihydrochloride to form a purple-red azo dye monitored at 538 nm. Nitrate can be determined within a range of 1.35-50.0 mg L-1 of NO3- (corresponding to 0.270-10.0 g of NO3- per kg of vegetable), with a conversion rate of nitrate to nitrite of 99.1 ± 0.8%. The results obtained for 15 vegetable extracts compare well with those provided by the classical procedure, with a sampling throughput of 24 determinations per hour and relative standard deviations better than 1.2%.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)533-544
Number of pages12
JournalCommunications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis
Volume38
Issue number3-4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2007

Keywords

  • Copperized cadmium column
  • Nitrate
  • Sequential injection analysis
  • Spectrophotometry
  • Vegetables

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