Silicon in sea water may be present in suspension, in particles of clay or sand, as a constituent of diatoms, etc., or in solution. Some silicon in solution occurs in the form of silicate. This is usually estimated by the colorimetric method of Diénert & Wandenbulcke (1923), which makes use of the yellow colour of the silicomolybdic acid which is formed when ammonium molybdate and sulphuric acid are added to the water (Atkins, 1923). The colour may be compared with that of standard solutions of picric acid (Diénert & Wandenbulcke, 1923) or potassium chromate (Swank & Mellon, 1934). The method is simple but the colour in sea water is often faint and is not easy to match visually, nor is its intensity strictly proportional to the concentration of silicate. Less colour is produced in sea water than in standard solutions made with distilled water and this ‘salt error’ must be allowed for (Brujewicz & Blinov, 1933; Wattenberg, 1937; Robinson & Spoor, 1936).
The determination of silicate in sea water