Abstract

A rapid, simple and accurate online method based on the combination of nephelometery with Flow Injection Analysis was proposed to determine the sulfate ion in tannery waste water. After reaction with Ba2+ in solution, the sample was propelled into the FIA system for analysis using the FIA function of an automatic metallic elements analyzer. Under the optimum conditions, a linear calibration graph was obtained in the ranges of 2.5-160 and 160- 320mg/l. The detection limit of the method was 0.4680mg/l, and the relative standard deviation was 0.82% (n = 8) versus 20mg/l sulfate. A satisfactory result was achieved with the proposed method for determination of sulfate ion in tannery waste water and the range of recovery percentages was 95.0-106.0%.