EDTA was used as an enhancer for Fe 2+ catalyzed light emission from luminol oxidation by dissolved oxygen. As a result, the limit of detection for ferrous ion with flow injection analysis was improved by a factor of 160 by addition of EDTA to the luminol solution. Fe 2+ and Fe 3+ were determined simultaneously with a novel copper-coated zinc reductor minicolumn installed in one of the shunt after sample splitting in the manifold. The reductor minicolumn can be used for 3000 determinations at least. The dynamic range of determination was 1×10 -9 ～1×10 -5 mol·L -1 , with the limit of detection of 2.7×10 10 and 3.5×10 10 mol·L 1 ,for Fe 2+ and Fe 3+ , respectively. The preci sion for determination of 2×10 7 mol·L 1 of Fe 2+ and Fe 3+ was 2.3% and 4.0% (n=8), respectively, at a sampling rate of 60 h -1 . Cr 3+ and Co 2+ interfere. Fe 2+ and Fe 3+ in mixture were determined with satisfactory results. Samples of Fe 2+ and Fe 3+ were determined simultaneously and the results in good agreement with the standard spectrophotometric method. Indications were shown that EDTA functions as an enhancer, Fe 2+ as a catalyst, and oxygen is the oxidant of the chemiluminescent reaction, and the mechanism of the reaction was discussed.
