[gracia.concepcion]

i am working on my undergraduate thesis right now and i am about to homogenize my soil medium to obtain certain mg of chromium. will potassium dichromate react with a stainless steel basin or with a plastic basin. i will use a basin to dry my soil with a stock solution of potassium dichromate. thanks!

[gracia.concepcion]

how can i use diphenylcarbazide to detect hexavalent chromium in soil. can you suggest other methods to easily detect hexavalent chromium in soil. thanks!

[Arkcon]

gracia.concepcion:  I hope you don't mind that I merged your two postings into one thread.  You'll get better results from this forum if you ask all your questions in one thread, on one sub-board.

[Jasim]

Chromate is a relatively strong oxidizer, so it might react with the basins if given enough time and/or some energy. My guess is that it shouldn't be something you'll need to worry about too much.

To more directly answer your question, I would think that chromate could react with stainless steel if you wanted it to, meaning you set up the conditions right. The term 'plastic' can mean all sorts of things, so I can't directly address that question. It would react with some plastics, it may not react with others.

If it is a concern, I would recommend non-reactive glass. It's my hunch that it shouldn't make a difference for what you are wanting to do, but I don't know the details.

[crosemeyer]

Hexavalent chromium in soil is kinda difficult. 

Current EPA digestion method 3060a: http://www.epa.gov/osw/hazard/testmethods/sw846/pdfs/3060a.pdf

Analysis methods 7196 by colorimetry (http://www.epa.gov/osw/hazard/testmethods/sw846/pdfs/7196a.pdf) or 7199 (http://www.epa.gov/osw/hazard/testmethods/sw846/pdfs/7199.pdf) by Ion Chromatography with diphenylcarbazide post-column.