N-(3-hydroxy-2-pyridyl)salicylaldimine as a reagent for the selective fluorimetric determination of aluminium in waters

Abstract

A method is described for the fluorimetric determination of aluminium at the nanogram level. The method is based on the reaction of aluminium with N-(3-hydroxy-2-pyridyl)salicylaldimine. The reaction is carried out in the pH range 4–6 in an aqueous N,N-dimethylformamide medium (12%V/VN,N-dimethylformamide). The influence of reaction variables is discussed. The detection limit is 1.4 ng ml^–1 and the range of application is 3.5–400 ng ml^–1 of aluminium. The relative standard deviation is 1.9%. The advantages of the proposed method include its high sensitivity and selectivity. The method has been applied to the determination of aluminium in waters.