- P-ISSN 1225-0163
- E-ISSN 2288-8985
A selective extraction-spectrophotometric method for the determination of mercury(II) with nocotinaldehyde-4-phenyl-3-thiosemicarbazone(NPS) was described. The method is based on the formation of an insoluble mercury-NPS complex, which is extratable into chloroform from an aqueous solution at pH 3.5 by shaking for 3 min. The absorbance is measured at 365nm and the molar absorptivity is <TEX>$2.45{\times}10^4L\;mol^{-1}\;cm^{-1}$</TEX>. The complex system conforms to Beer's law for up to <TEX>$18{\mu}g\;mL^{-1}$</TEX> of mercury(II). The proposed method is simple and selective and has been satisfactorily applied to the determination of mercury in standard human hair sample.