Chlorine dioxide (ClO2) is used at many water treatment
plants for disinfecting potable water. In such
applications, having a simple, convenient, and reliable
analytical method to measure the concentration of
ClO2 can simplify the use of it as a disinfectant. However,
the presence of the Cl2O4- complex, which forms in
ClO2 solutions in the presence of chlorite ion, can result
in significant error in the spectrophotometric measurement
of ClO2. In this article, the authors demonstrate the
significance of the Cl2O4- complex and report the formation
constant (Keq) and the molar absorptivity of this
complex. Based on the Keq and the molar absorptivity
values, the authors propose two methods to correct for the
presence of the complex and suggest the use of one equation
in particular. By using the equation suggested, the
authors demonstrate that the error of the determined
ClO2 concentrations is reduced to the level of errors associated
with the spectrophotometric measurements. Includes 16 references, tables, figures.