Semiautomatic determination of ferrous iron in iron ore using a flow-injection technique

A semiautomatic method for mineral-phase analysis for ferrous iron (FeCO₃) using on-line leaching technique was developed. A flow-injection manifold is described, which makes on-line leaching of the powdered sample followed by color developing of Fe(II) with o-phenanthroline and its spectrophotometric determination possible. This method can produce meaningful results provided that the experimental conditions are kept at optimum values. The analysis time is greatly reduced by using flow injection techniques. Sample throughput was about 12 samples/hr with a method precision of 2.7% RSD, depending on the leaching time chosen and FeCO₃ content in ores. Analytical data were in good agreement with recommended values for analysis of standard references materials. For each analysis, 20–30 mg of powdered sample was required. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Lab Robotics and Automation 12:86–90, 2000