Determination of Dissolved Oxygen in Seawater by Direct Spectrophotometry of Total Iodine

Abstract

A modified procedure has been proposed for the colorimetric determination of dissolved oxygen in seawater to improve its precision and accuracy. When a pickled sample is acidified, iodine liberated in the iodometric reaction is measured by direct spectrophotometry at 456 nm. Loss of molecular iodine by volatilization is eliminated by transferring the sample to a flow cuvette without contact with air. The method was calibrated for oxygen by spiking known amounts of potassium iodate. Precision was found at better than 0.2% r.s.d. (full scale). Evaluation of accuracy was made by comparison with calculated oxygen solubilities, which shows a relative bias of no more than 0.5% for oxic waters. The analytical throughput was much faster than that of the standard titration procedure.