Extraction and Spectrophotometric Determination of Trace Amounts of Titanium Present in Rocks and Minerals

Department of Chemistry, Jadavpur University, Calcutta-32

Manuscript received 3 July 1974, revised 11 June 1975, accepted 24 June 1975

Titanium (IV) forms an orange yellow coloured chelate with salicylhydroxamic acid at pH 1.5-2.0 having the composition TiO(C₇H₆O ₃N)₂ in the solid state, is extractable with isoamyl alcohol and the colour of the extract can be directly measured spectrophotometrically at 348 nm. The system follows Beer's law at 348 nm over the concentration range 0.1 ppm to 10.0 ppm of titanium, with a sensitivity of 0.0083 µg Ti cm^-2 and :molar absorptivity of 5769. The method is found suitable for determination of titanium present in the silicate" rocks and minerals for which this has been successfully employed.