Masking of iron and other interferences during the spectrophotometric analysis of aluminum from soil samples using Alizarin Red S

Authors

HAFIZ ZAIN UL AABIDINFollow
MUHAMMAD INAM UL HASSANFollow
TARIQ YASINFollow
MUHAMMAD ZUBAIR RAHIMFollow
AHSAN AMIN BHATTIFollow
HAMAYUN IMTIAZFollow
ASIF RAZAFollow

Abstract

In whole-rock geochemical analysis, the quantification of aluminum in geological samples is performed using differentanalytical techniques including UV-Vis spectrophotometry. During the spectrophotometric analysis of aluminum utilizing AlizarinRed S, iron causes significant interference, leading to inaccurate measurements of the amount of aluminum in the sample. In caseswhere leached or processed samples contain titanium, interference is also observed. However, appropriate masking agents can removethese interferences. In this study, various masking agents including Tiron, oxalic acid, ascorbic acid, and thioglycolic acid were utilizedfor the masking of iron. Among these masking agents, ascorbic acid proved to be the best candidate for masking iron. A simple andefficient method was then developed for the masking of iron with the optimization of parameters including concentration of ascorbicacid and reaction time. With this technique, 2 mL of ascorbic acid (10%) can mask iron at up to 3000 ppm in aliquots. Moreover,titanium interference is not observed with this method when the titanium concentration in the aliquot is below 100 ppm. This methodwas subsequently applied to geological samples and the results were compared to those of atomic absorption spectroscopy. Most samplescan easily be analyzed for aluminum by utilizing this masking technique and circumventing interference problems.

Author ORCID Identifier

HAFIZMUHAMMADAHSANHAMAYUN AABIDININAM UL HASSANZUBAIR RAHIMBHATTIIMTIAZ: 0000-0000-0000-0001

TARIQ YASIN: 0000-0002-9121-4041

ASIF RAZA: 0000-0003-3069-8027

DOI

10.55730/1300-0527.3713

Keywords

Masking of iron, titanium, spectrophotometric, analysis of aluminum, Alizarin Red S, geological samples

First Page

89

Last Page

102

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

AABIDIN, HAFIZ ZAIN UL; INAM UL HASSAN, MUHAMMAD; YASIN, TARIQ; ZUBAIR RAHIM, MUHAMMAD; BHATTI, AHSAN AMIN; IMTIAZ, HAMAYUN; and RAZA, ASIF (2025) "Masking of iron and other interferences during the spectrophotometric analysis of aluminum from soil samples using Alizarin Red S," Turkish Journal of Chemistry: Vol. 49: No. 1, Article 8. https://doi.org/10.55730/1300-0527.3713
Available at: https://journals.tubitak.gov.tr/chem/vol49/iss1/8