An environment-friendly supramolecular solvent-based liquid–phase microextraction method for determination of aluminum in water and acid digested food samples prior to spectrophotometry

Abstract

Aluminum (III) has high toxic impacts in some human pathologies like renal osteodystrophy, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. So, it is very important to assess and determine the trace concentrations of Aluminum (III) in various water and acid digested food samples. The present work proposed a new green supramolecular solvent liquid–phase microextraction procedure has been sophisticated to preconcentrate and determine Aluminum (III) in various samples. The proposed method was based on the application of Undecanol/THF supramolecular solvent system and thymol blue as a chelating agent. Aluminum (III)-thymol blue complex was formed at pH 6.0, extracted into (Undecanol/THF) supramolecular solvent phase, centrifuged and spectrophotometrically measured at 550 nm. The influence of different analytical parameters was studied and optimized. The validation of the suggested preconcentration method was checked using certified reference materials. The calibration curve was linear in the range of 5.0–200 μg L−1. The developed method has preconcentration factor of 50 and detection limit was 1.20 μg L−1. The method precision was confirmed with relative standard deviation ≤1.80%. The accuracy of the new preconcentration procedure was checked by the analysis of the certified reference materials (SRM 1643e trace element in water and NIST SRM 1515 Apple Leaves), and successfully applied to determine Aluminum (III) in real samples with relative recovery values in the range of 95.0%–100% for the spiked samples. This study explores the effectiveness of thymol blue for the first time together with supramolecular solvent to develop green supramolecular solvent liquid–phase microextraction method to preconcentrate and separate of trace amount of Aluminum (III) in real samples.