ABSTRACT
Introduction Iron is an essential trace element involved in normal growth and development. e importance of iron in nutrition has been recognized and, therefore, this element is often added in certain foodstus. Reliable speciation of iron (II) and iron (III) is fundamental for the proper characterization of many of the processes in terrestrial and aquatic environments [1], and is also of practical importance in the investigation of corrosion of iron and the treatment of wastewaters from the mining and steel industries [2]. e determination of the oxidation state of iron in a variety of natural water samples has generally been performed by complexation with specic chelating agents followed by spectrophotometry [3-8] or voltammerry [9-11]. To attain adequate sensitivity of the method in dealing with the analysis of iron at µmoll or lower levels, pre-concentration procedures have been reported using the natural polymer Chitin [12], Chelex 100 [13], melamine-formaldehyde resin [14], or by solid phase extraction on C18 cartridge [15,16].
