A kinetic spectrophotometric method is described for the determination of trace levels of cyanide based on its catalytic effect on the oxidation of Janus green by ammonium peroxodisulfate in nitric acid media. The reaction was monitored spectrophotometrically by measuring the decrease in absorbance of the Janus green at 612nm after 4 min. The effect of reaction variables on the reaction sensitivity was investigated. Under the optimized conditions, a calibration graph from 10.0 to 500.0 ng/ml of cyanide with a detection limit of 7.0 ng/m was obtained. The proposed method is simple, sensitive and inexpensive and it was applied to directly the determination of cyanide in drinking and ground waters with the satisfactory results
