Simultaneous kinetic method for the determination of vitamin C, citrate and oxalate employing the Kalman filter

A kinetic method for the determination of vitamin C, citrate and oxalate in their mixture is described. The method involves the use of cerium(IV) as an oxidant and measurement of reaction rates spectrophotometrically by following the decrease in absorbance of cerium(IV) at 410 nm. The adaptive Kalman filter was used for data manipulation and analysis. It is shown that the use of the Kalman filter is superior to the classical differential kinetic methods owing to its suitability for the determination of analytes that react with a single reagent and exhibit a reaction rate constant ratio of less than 1.5. The results obtained were found to be highly precise and accurate even in the presence of some expected interferents.