Spectrophotometric determination of aluminum and copper ions using spadns

Aluminum and copper ions are selectively estimated spectrophotometrically. These ions form colored complexes with spadns which have a maximum absorbance at 580 nm. The complexes formed with both cations are stable and pH dependant; aluminum is favorably complexed at pH 5, while copper is complexed at pH 7.The percentage recoveries were found to be 99.69 ± 0.75 and 99.32 ± 0.6 with a minimum detection limit of 0.08 and 0.23 g ml^–1 for aluminum and copper ions respectively. There is insignificant interference from the 10-fold concentrations of other metal ions under the proposed reaction conditions.