Indirect Ppectrometric determination of phosphate

Abstract

This paper reports the development of an alternative quantitative analytical procedure for the determination of phosphate by an indirect method. It involves the precipitation of magnesium ammonium phosphate, which is dessolved in hydrochloric acid and the resulting magnesium determined by atomic absorption spectrometry. The phosphate concentration was then determined from the amount of magnesium present. Linearity was obtained in range up to 0.5ppm Mg, which can be done to an accuracy of about 89%. The consistency of the result and the observed recovery suggest low phosphate ion.