Sequential injection fluorimetric determination of Sn in juices of canned fruits.

The present work describes the development of a fast and robust sequential injection fluorimetric procedure for the determination of Sn in juices of canned fruits. The developed automatic methodology is based on the complexation of Sn with 8-hydroxyquinoline-5-sulfonic acid (HQSA) to form a fluorimetric product (lambda(exc)=354 nm; lambda(em)=510 nm). The influence of dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) and cetylpyridinium bromide (CPB) on the sensitivity of the fluorimetric determination was evaluated. Linear calibration plots were obtained for Sn concentrations between 1 and 10 mg L(-1), with a detection limit of 0.38 mg L(-1). In each analytical cycle 0.006 mg of HQSA and 0.47 mg of CPB were consumed and 1.5 mL of effluent was generated. The developed methodology was applied to the determination of Sn in juices of canned fruits and the results complied with those furnished by an electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry comparison procedure, with relative deviations lower than 5.2%. The automatic procedure exhibited good precision (R.S.D.<1.4%) and the sampling rate was about 70 determinations per hour.