Potentiometric titrations of molybdenum and vanadium in aqueous and mixed so lvents

Potentiometric titration method was developed for molybdenum, employing different electrode systems. Molybdenum(VI) is reduced to molybdenum(V) by ferrous solution in presence of phosphoric acid and then titrated with potassium dichromate. It was found that ferrous concentration should be five times more than molybdenum and phosphoric acid should be 1.0 ml for 0.1N titration and 0.5 ml for lower concentration titrations. The method is also applicable to vanadium titrations. Employing Au/SCE and Pt/SCE systems, it was observed that generally curve heights obtained for platinum electrode are higher than those for gold electrode. Also for both the electrode systems, the curve heights for vanadium titrations were found to be more than those for molybdenum. Lower limits of titrations for Au/SCE system are 0.01N for molybdenum and 0.0001N for vanadium, whereas for Pt/SCE system, the lower limits obtained were 0.01N for both molybdenum and vanadium titrations. In order to improve the sensitivities of the method, the bimetallic electrode systems Au/Pt and Pt/Au were employed. Au/Pt system was found to give better results than Pt/Au systems. Addition of organic solvent was found to have beneficial effects for titrations of 0.001N and below. Methanol was found to be a better solvent than ethanol. Molybdenum titrations, at 0.0001N level could be performed in methanol with Au/Pt system, which is to b e generally preferred than Pt/Au system. (author). 7 refs., 3 tabs