A New Fluorimetric Reagent for Determination of Trace Amounts of Europium

In this paper, a new ligand, 2,9-bis[N,N-bis(carboxymethyl)-aminomethyl]-1,10-phenanthroline, was synthesized and used to establish a novel fluorimetric method for the determination of trace amounts of europium. The fluorescence intensity was a linear function of the concentration of europium in the range of 4.0 × 10^-9-1.0 × 10^-6 mol/L. The detection limit was 1.0 × 10^-9 mol/L. The standard addition method was used to determine the europium in a synthetic rare-earth sample and high purity Y ₂O₃ matrix with satisfactory results.