Abstract: An arsenazo Ⅲ spectrophotometric method for determining zirconium content in anti-perspiration cosmetics was established.The effects of dosage of chromogenic agent,time and temperature for chromogenic action,as well as the coexisting ions on the absorbance were investigated.Results showed that under room temperature,absorbing wavelength of 664 nm and 30 min for chromogenic action are the suitable conditions.The linear range for zirconium content is 2~10 mg/L and the correlation coefficient R² is 0.999 9;the detection limit is 59 mg/kg;the limit of quantification is 72 mg/kg;RSD achieves 3.23%;the spiked recovery achieves 88.8%~109.2%.Common coexisting ions,such as K⁺,Na⁺,Ba²⁺,Sb³⁺,Pb²⁺ and so on show no interference to the determination of zirconium.The method is reliable,accurate and suitable for the determination of zirconium in cosmetics.

Key words: cosmetics, determination of zirconium, arsenazo Ⅲ, spectrophotometry