Water-soluble polymers for spectrophotometric and flow injection determination of cobalt with nitroso-R-salt.

The water-soluble polymers poly(ethylenimine), quaternized poly(ethylenimine), and poly-4-vinyl-(N-benzyltrimethyl) ammonium chloride were found to be able to change the kinetics of the reaction of cobalt with nitroso-R-salt and the optical density of the cobalt complex formed. The optimum pH range for the complex formation was a wide range from 1 to 10 and at pH 2 the reaction developed instantly. The calibration graph was linear in the range 0.