<b>New spectrophotometric method with KMnO₄ for determination of hypochlorite in commercial bleaches</b>

• Main Authors: P. Gengan, S.B. Jonnalagadda
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chemical Society of Ethiopia 2005-06-01
• Series: Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Ethiopia
• Subjects: Commercial bleaches; Hypochlorite determination; Spectrophotometric method
• Online Access: http://www.ajol.info/index.php/bcse/article/view/21103

Hypochlorite with a strong germicidal and bleaching action forms the active component in most commercial bleaches. The new method, an instrument-based and simple experimental procedure involves the reaction of the hypochlorite with arsenious oxide (As₂O₃) (pH 6.5) followed by the coupled reaction of residual As₂O₃ with permanganate at acidic pH. A titration procedure is described and spectrophotometric method is designed using four ranges of calibration curves to enable the determination of hypochlorite in the range 2.5 x 10^-4 to 2.4 x 10^-2 M from the KMnO₄ absorbance measurements. A series of commercial bleaches are tested using the proposed spectrophotometric method. The results proved more precise and accurate than by arsenite method.