Spectrophotometric Determination of p-aminobenzoic acid via Diazotization and Coupling reaction

A simple and accurate spectrophotometric method to assay p-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) has been suggested. The method based on the diazotization of PABA via reaction with nitrite ions which liberated in the medium through the reaction of sodium nitrite with hydrochloric acid, then coupling the dizotised-PABA(D-PABA)with 1-naphthylamine -7-sulphonic acid (1-NASA) to form an intense colored pink azo dye ,it is water-soluble , very stable and has a maximum absorbance at 525 nm. The absorbance was increase with the increasing of PABA amounts in the solution, and the linearity from 2.5 to70 µg in 10 ml (0.25to7 µg.ml-1).The molar absorptivity and Sandell ҆s sensitivity values have been calculated they equal to 3.6057x104 L.mol-1 cm -1 and 0.0037993 µg. cm-2 respectively. The two values above demonstrated a good sensitivity of the suggested method. The method has been used in estimated PABA resulted from analysis of folic acid in tablet.