An Empirical Titrimetric Method for the Determination of Beryllium

Recently, in connection with a study of the metallurgy of beryllium, a rapid and accurate method was needed for the determination of this metal. A review of the literature revealed that the existing titrimetric methods are based on hydrolysis, neutralization or precipitation reactions. These methods are outlined briefly below. 1. Direct titration of a beryllium salt with sodium hydroxide using phenolphthalein as the indicator (3). 2. An iodometric titration of the acid resulting from the hydrolysis of a beryllium salt (3, 10). 3. Hydrolysis of a fluoberyllate in the presence of calcium chloride followed by titration with sodium hydroxide using phenolphthalein as the indicator (4, 17). 4. Hydrolysis of a fluoberyllate in the presence of calcium chloride followed by an iodometric titration of the resulting acid (11). 5. Precipitation of beryllium hydroxide followed by dissolution in excess hydrochloric acid and the iodometric determination of the excess acid (7). 6. Precipitation of small amounts of beryllium by titration with a standard quinalizarin solution (8, 9). 7. Potentiometric titration of beryllium solutions with standard sodium fluoride solution (16). 8. Titration of beryllium solutions with sodium hydroxide, ammonium hydroxide or triammonium phosphate. The progress of the titration is followed by means of a high frequency titrimeter (13)