Chemical reduction and spectrophotometric determination of silver, copper and nickel.

Silver(I), copper(II) and nickel(II) can be reduced to the metallic state by formaldehyde at pH 11, chromium(II) in 2.5M sulphuric acid, and borohydride at pH 5.5-6.0, respectively. Reoxidation of these metals with iron(III) in the presence of Ferrozine enables their determination at concentration below 1 mug/ml by measurement of the absorbance of the iron(II)-Ferrozine complex at 562 nm, with a precision better than 3%. The apparent molar absorptivities for silver, copper and nickel are 2.78 x 10(4), 5.56 x 10(4) and 5.58 x 10(4) l.mole(-1).cm(-1), respectively. The average thickness of silver films on glass surfaces can be determined in the way.