A novel polymer inclusion membranes based optode for sensitive determination of Al3+ ions

•A new and sensitive PIMs based optode has been developed for determination of Al(III) ions.•We have employed PIMs to enhance the sensitivity, selectivity and response time of the optode.•We have investigated the PIMs properties and its characteristics.•We have demonstrate that the constructed optode is applicable for determination of Al(III) in real water samples.

A novel approach for the determination of Al3+ from aqueous samples was developed using an optode membrane produced by physical inclusion of Al3+ selective reagent, which is morin into a plasticized poly(vinyl chloride). The inclusion of Triton X-100 was found to be valuable and useful for enhancing the sorption of Al3+ ions from liquid phase into the membrane phase, thus increasing the intensity of optode’s absorption. The optode showed a linear increase in the absorbance at λmax = 425 nm over the concentration range of 1.85 × 10−6–1.1 × 10−4 mol L−1 (0.05–3 μg mL−1) of Al3+ ions in aqueous solution after 5 min. The limit of detection was determined to be 1.04 × 10−6 mol L−1 (0.028 μg mL−1). The optode developed in the present work was easily prepared and found to be stable, has good mechanical strength, sensitive and reusable. In addition, the optode was tested for Al3+ determination in lake water, river water and pharmaceutical samples, which the result was satisfactory.

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