Determination of aluminum in moisturizing body lotions using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry

A method has been developed for the determination of Al in commercial moisturizing body lotions using high-resolution continuum source graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (HR-CS GF AAS). The most sensitive absorption line at 309.271 nm has been used for all determinations. The samples were prepared via a suspension with 0.3 mol L−1 nitric acid. Comparisons were made with pyrolysis and atomization curves without a modifier and using ruthenium and zirconium as permanent modifiers, to reduce the interaction of Al with the graphite surface and to improve the atomization efficiency of Al. 400 μg Zr was finally chosen as the best permanent modifier. The limits of detection and quantification were 30 ng g−1 and 95 ng g−1 Al, respectively. The proposed method was applied for 15 commercial moisturizing body lotions with results ranging between 0.17 ± 0.05 μg g−1 and 11.8 ± 0.43 μg g−1. Analyte addition tests have been used to evaluate the accuracy of the method and the recovery ranged between 103 and 110%, indicating that there was no serious matrix effect.