Photometric determination of aluminium and zinc with salicylaldehyde semicarbazone

Abstract

The effect of some tensides on the absorption, excitation, and fluorescence spectra of Al and Zn complexes of salicylaldehyde semicarbazone in aqueous-alcoholic solutions and on their extractability into ethyl acetate has been studied. The shape of the absorption spectra is unaffected by the presence of the tensides while the time of the complex formation is shorter. The complexes are extractable into ethyl acetate in the presence of the anionactive tenside tested, sodium lauryl sulphate. The optimum conditions for the spectrophotometric and fluorometric determination of Al and Zn have been established. The limit of determination is 2 ng ml-1 (pH 3.8-4.8) for Al and 50 ng ml-1 (pH 8.4-8.6) for Zn. Using thiosulphate or fluoride as masking agents, Zn can be determined in a concentration of 2 μg ml-1 in the presence of the same quantity of Al or Cu, or in the presence of a tenfold excess of Fe, with a relative standard deviation of 1.5%.