Spectrophotometric determination of phosphate in waters of Egypt

The proposed method is used for determination of trace amounts of phosphate in water samples especially of Dakahlia Governorate. The recommended procedure is based on the formation of molydophosphoric acid which upon, selective reduction with the reducing agent oxalyldihydrazide produces a blue color due to the molybdenum blue. The intensity of the blue color is proportional to the amount of phosphate initially incorporated in the heteropoly acid. The resulting blue complex could be determined in the range of 2.25 to 22.46 μg P with molar absorptivity of 33418 L^?1 mol^?1 cm^?1 at 880 nm. The reduction of phosphomolybdate complex by oxalyldihydrazide is chosen in the work and the result is compared with those obtained with the reducing agent potassium antimonyl tartrate, the reduction methods are frequently recommended for manual analysis of waters and wastes for P.