Spectrophotometric and derivative spectrophotometric determination of aluminium with Hydroxynaphthol Blue

Abstract

The reaction of aluminium(III) with Hydroxynaphtol Blue (HNB) in aqueous media at apparent pH 5.5 results in a red complex that is stable for at least 4 hr. Beer's Law is obeyed up to 1.6 μg/ml of aluminium(III) with an apparent molar absorptivity of 1.66 × 104 l.mol−1. cm−1 at 569 nm. This paper proposes procedures for aluminium(III) determination by ordinary and first-derivative spectrophotometry. The results demonstrated that the linear dynamic range is 0.03–1.60 μg/ml for ordinary spectrophotometry and 11.8–320.0 ng/ml for first derivative spectrophotometry. The HNB is not selectivity for aluminium, but the addition of EDTA allows the aluminium determination in the presence of accepted amounts of Ca(II), Mg(II), Mn(II), Ba(II), Sr(II), Cd(II), Pb(II), La(III), In(III), Bi(III) and Zn(II). The interference of Cu(II) and Hg(II) can be masked by thiosulphate. Ions such as UO2(II), Mo(VI), Co(II), Ti(IV) and PO4(III) do interfere seriously. This method was applied for aluminium determination in copper-base alloy, zinc-base alloy, magnesium-base alloy, iron ore, manganese ore, cement, dolomite, feldspar and limestone. The results indicated high accuracy and precision.