Simultaneous determination of Fe(III) and Al(III) by first-derivative spectrophotometry and partial least-squares (PLS-2) method – Application to post-haemodialysis fluids

Derivative spectrophotometry (graphical method) and partial least-squares regression (numerical method) methods were developed for the spectrophotometric multi-component analysis of post-haemodialysis fluids and synthetic mixtures containing Al(III) and Fe(III) without any chemical separation. The complexes of these metal ions with chrome azurol S were formed immediately at pH 5.5 and were stable for at least 3 h. The graphical method is based on the use of first-derivative spectra for evaluation because working wavelength determination was more precise and spectral overlap was less than in the ordinary spectra. Two wavelengths at which the complexes exhibited maximum absorption values for Fe(III) and Al(III) were selected as analytical wavelengths, i.e., 675 and 623.5 nm, respectively. Lambert–Beer's law is obeyed between 0.0896–8.064 μg/mL Fe(III) and 0.054–0.486 μg/mL Al(III). Limits of detection for Fe(III) and Al(III) were 0.056 and 0.044 μg/mL, respectively. The reproducibility, expressed as variation coefficients, for two sets of 10 standard mixtures containing 3.584 μg/mL Fe(III) and 0.27 μg/mL Al(III) were 1.9% and 2% for iron and aluminium, respectively. In the numerical method, a training set was randomly prepared by using 14 samples. The concentration of each component has been varied in the linear range of the analytical signal. The spectral regions between 510 and 720 nm were selected for the analysis of the binary mixture of Fe(III)/Al(III). The proposed methods were validated by using synthetic binary mixtures and applied to the simultaneous determination of Fe(III) and Al(III) in post-haemodialysis samples. The obtained results were compared with each other; in general, both multi-component methods gave rise to similar recovery results for laboratory-prepared mixtures and real samples.