Reverse flow-injection manifold for spectrofluorimetric determination of aluminum in drinking water

A simple reverse flow-injection (rFIA) manifold for the direct determination of aluminum in drinking water is proposed. This rapid and sensitive method is based on the formation of an Al3+ complex with salicylaldehyde picolinoylhydrazone (SAPH), which shows a maximum blue-green fluorescence (λex=384 nm, λem= 468 nm) at pH 5.4. Operative conditions both for batch and rFIA procedures were investigated including reagent concentration, buffer solutions, injection loop, reacting coil and wavelengths used for the fluorimetric detection. The tolerance limits of foreign ions have been also evaluated, before and after the addition of masking agents. The reverse flow-injection procedure allows determination of Al3+ at ppb level (LOD: 1.9 μg l−1) within a working range of 5–30 μg l−1. The proposed method was successfully employed for the determination of Al3+ in several commercial drinking, soft drinking (as certified reference material), and tap water samples.