Determination of palladium in deoxo catalysts by differential pulse voltammetry

A differential pulse voltammetric (DPV) method is proposed for the determination of palladium in deoxo catalysts, which are used in recombination units of the cover gas system of nuclear reactors. The electrode system consists of hanging mercury drop electrode (HMDE)/ platinum auxillary/ Ag-AgCl reference electrode. The supporting electrolyte consists of 0.02 M diammonium tartrate + 0.08 M ammonia-ammonium chloride buffer at pH 9.0. Fe, Cu, Pb, Ni, Co and Zn did not interfere. The interference by Cd could be eliminated using 0.005 M EDTA. The relative standard deviation of the proposed method was about 4.0% at ∼ 0.5% palladium content in the catalyst. The method is simple, rapid and free from any possible interferences.