Determination of free iodine concentration in an X-ray contrast agent

Based on the analysis of the absorption spectra of solutions of iodine in ethanol, we propose a simple and sensitive (at a level of 1 mu g/g) method for determination of the concentration of free (not bound to polymer) iodine in substances synthesized from ether oils and iodine. The method uses absorption of molecular iodine in the UV region. Iodine dissolved in alcohols has a rather large absorption cross section in the UV region. These absorption bands can be used to detect very small quantities of iodine. It is shown that, for iodine concentrations in the 1-50 mu g/g range, the intensity of absorption band at a wavelength of 359 nm depends linearly on the iodine concentration, which allows one to use this band to determine the concentration of iodine not bound with the polymer in the X-ray contrast material.