Aluminium traces determination in biological and water samples using a novel extraction scheme combined with molecular fluorescence

•An inexpensive methodology for aluminium traces determination is proposed.•A new extraction scheme was combined with molecular fluorescence.•The reached sensitivity was comparable at those of atomic spectroscopies.•Aluminium can be quantified in biological and water samples.

A ternary surfactant system is for the first time proposed as an extraction strategy of aluminium traces using 8-hydroxyquinoline as complexing agent and applied for selective preconcentration of this metal. The analyte was quantified in the enriched solution by molecular fluorescence. After optimization of the complexation and extraction conditions, an enrichment factor superior to 30-fold was obtained with improved sensitivity of 2.5 times compared to the conventional extraction system using only a nonionic surfactant. The calibration curve in the range of 0.853–79.87 μg L− 1 was linear and the limit of detection was 0.281 μg L− 1. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of aluminium in biological and water samples.