Sensitive Spectrofluorimetric Study of the Interaction between Europium(III) and 1,2-Phenylenebis(azan-1-yl-1-ylidene) bis(methan-1-yl-1-ylidene)diphenol Schiff Base

A sensitive and selective spectrofluorimetric method has been developed for the rapid determination of europium(III). This method is based on the formation of nonluminous complex between Eu(III) and a Schiff base reagent N, N′-bis (salicylidene)-1,2-phenylenediamine (PABD) and measuring the fluorescence quenching of Eu(III)-PABD complex at λ_ex/em = 390/577 nm. The fluorescence intensity complex decreased linearly by increasing the Eu(III) concentration in the range of 1.0–13.0 μM. The optimum conditions for the complex formation were determined such as a pH .0 of borate buffer. The limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) of Eu(III) were determined and found to be 0.217 and 0.653 μM, respectively. The maximum relative standard deviation of the method for an europium(III) standard of 6.0 μM was 2.07 % (n = 6). The proposed procedures could be applied successfully for the determination of the investigated metal ion in some spiked water samples with a good precision and accuracy compared to official and reported methods as revealed by t- and F-tests.