Development of a Novel Spectrophotometric Method for Toluene Quantification and Detecting Benzene Amount Fraction as an Impurity in Pure Toluene

This study aims the development of a novel chemical method for toluene estimation. In this account, pure toluene was oxidized by KMnO4 in a basic medium that converts into potassium benzoate, which is analyzed by UV Spectrophotometer, and the % age conversion is determined. Different concentrations of potassium benzoate obtained by applying reaction to varying amounts of toluene; are analyzed that give wavelength maxima at 223.5 nm same as that of pure potassium benzoate, and the exact amount of toluene in the sample can be quantified. This method's detection limit is 0.1 ml (87 mg) of toluene. This method provides high sensitivity and accuracy that would be ideal for the estimation of toluene. This paper is also confined to the impurity of benzene in toluene. The amount fraction of benzene was quantified using a Janovsky reaction that leads to the dye formation. Colorimetric measurement of formed dye quantifies the benzene amount fraction in pure toluene, i.e., 0.045 ± 0.002 ml of benzene in 5 ml of pure toluene.