A reverse flow injection analysis (rFIA) spectrophotometric method has been developed for the
determination of aluminium(III). The method was based on the reaction of Al(III), quercetin and
cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), yielding a yellow colored complex in an acetate buffer
medium (pH 5.5) with absorption maximum at 428nm. The rFIA parameters that influence the FIA peak
height have been optimized in order to obtain the best sensitivity and minimum reagent consumption.
A linear relationship between the relative peak height and Al(III) concentrations were obtained over
the concentration range of 0.02–0.50mgL
−1
with a correlation coefficient of 0.9998. The limit of detec-tion (LOD, defined as 3) and limit of quantification (LOQ, defined as 10) were 0.007 and 0.024mgL
−1
,
respectively. The repeatability was 1.10% (n=11) for 0.2mgL−1
Al(III). The proposed method was applied
to the determination of Al(III) in tap water sampleswith a sampling rate of 60h
−1
. Results obtained were
in good agreement with those obtained by the official ICP-MS method at the 95% confidence level.