Furoin thiosemicarbazone as an analytical reagent for nickel(II), palladium(II) and copper(II).

Furoin thiosemicarbazone (FTS) reacts with Ni(II), Pd(II) and Cu(II) in aqueous medium, giving yellow solutions at pH 9, 6 and 3 respectively. The complexes have absorption maxima at 360 nm for Ni(II) and Pd(II) and 355 nm for Cu(II). At these wavelengths the reagent absorbance is negligible. The molar absorptivities are 1.54 x 10(4) [Ni(FTS)(2)], 1.98 x 10(4) [Pd(FTS)(2)] and 1.45 x 10(4) 1.mole(-1).cm(-1) (CuFTS). Beer's law is valid up to 4, 5 and 3 ppm for Ni, Pd and Cu respectively. The apparent instability constant of the Ni-FTS system is found to be 6.5 x 10(-11), of the Cu-FTS system 7.1 x 10(-7) and of the Pd-FTS system 3 x 10(-12) at the recommended pH values. The effect of various ions is reported.