Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 February 2011
The sol-gel process can be used to produce porous inorganic matrices that are doped with organic molecules. These doped gels can be used as a quantitative method for the spectrophotometric determination of trace concentrations of metallic ions. For the detection of hexavalent chromium, malachite green was used as the dopant. Preliminary results indicate concentrations on the order of 5 ppb are detectable using this method.