Indirect complexometric determination of mercury(II) in synthetic alloys and complexes using ethanethiol as a selective masking agent

A complexometric method for the determination of mercury(II) in presence of other metal ions, based on the selective masking action of ethanethiol towards mercury(II) is described. Mercury(II) present in a given sample solution is first complexed with an excess of EDTA and the unreacted EDTA is titrated against zinc sulphate solution at pH 5-6 (hexamine buffer) using xylenol orange as the indicator. An excess of a 0.3 % solution of ethanethiol is then added to displace EDTA from the Hg(II)-EDTA complex. The released EDTA is titrated with a standard zinc sulphate solution. Reproducible and accurate results are obtained for 4-85 mg of mercury(II) with a relative error of less than ± 0.46 % and coefficient of variation of not more than 0.47 %. The effects of the presence of various ions were studied. The method can be used for the analysis of mercury in its synthetic alloy mixtures and also in complexes.