Aluminium was determined in a weakly alkaline medium by reaction with aliza
rin at trace level. Flotation of the complex was carried out with heptane,
followed by dissolution in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) for subsequent spect
rophotometric determination. The molar absorptivity was 2.92x10(5) mol(-1)
cm(-1) at 518 nm. Beer's law was obeyed in the range 5-80 mu g/l and the de
tection limit was 0.4 mu g/l.
The reliability of the procedure was confirmed by determination of a sample
of milk with Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometric method
(GFAAS). The precision and accuracy of the method were both acceptable via
F and t tests at the 95% confidence level.