Flow-through analysis of Al in seawater by fluorometric detection with the use of lumogallion

A flow-through analytical method has been developed for the determination of trace amounts of aluminum in seawater with the use of Lumogallion fluorometric detection. Because iron was selectively removed by passing the sample through an 8-quinolinol immobilized chelating resin column (MAF-8HQ), this method could be applied to samples collected at the hydrothermal oceanic regime. Several known organic complexing agents were studied as a model group to examine the effect of naturally occurring organic ligands on the detection of aluminum in seawater. The detection limit was 0.17 nM for 10 ml of sample. The standard deviation was 2.7% at 2 nM of aluminum. This method permitted the sensitive, precise, and rapid determination of subnanomolar Al in seawater without contamination onboard ship. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Field Analyt Chem Technol 4: 274–282, 2000