Determination of sulfate ion by potentiometric back-titration using sodium tetrakis (4-fluorophenyl) borate as a titrant and a titrant-sensitive electrode

A potentiometric back-titration method for the determination of sulfate ions using a plasticized poly(vinyl chloride) membrane electrode sensitive to a titrant is described. The method is based on ion association between the excess of 2-aminoperimidinium added to the sulfate ion in the sample and sodium tetrakis (4-fluorophenyl) borate (FPB) in the titrant. The titration end-point was detected as a sharp potential change due to an increase in the concentration of the free FPB at the equivalence point. The end-point was detected even in the presence of a 20-fold excess of common cations and anions relative to the concentration of the sulfate ion within ~2% of titration error. A linear relationship between the concentration of the sulfate ion and the end-point volume of the titrant exists in the sulfate ion concentration range from 2 x 10^-4 to 3 x 10^-3 mol l^-1 using 10^-2 mol l^-1 FPB solutions as the titrant. The present method could be applied to determine sulfate ions in sea water.