Determination of boron trifluoride in boron trifluoride complex by fluoride ion selective electrode

A method was proposed to determine boron trifluoride in boron trifluoride complex using fluoride ion selective electrode(ISE). Hydroxide was chosen to mask aluminum for the determination of 0.01—0.1 mol/L of fluoride. The simulation indicated that the permissible aluminum masked at a certain pH value was limited and hardly related to F-concentration and boric acid. It is better to control pH value below 11.5 and the aluminum concentration within 0.025 mol/L to minimize the interference of hydroxide to the fluoride ISE. The decomposition conditions of boron trifluoride by aluminum chloride were investigated. It is found that the F-detection ratio will approach 1.0 if the Al/F molar ratio is 0.3—0.7 and aluminum concentration is no more than 0.02 mol/L when heated at 80 °C for 10 min. In one word, hydroxide is quite fit to mask aluminum for samples which contain high content of fluoride and aluminum and the BF3 content can be successfully determined by this method.