A novel solidified floating organic drop microextraction method for preconcentration and determination of copper ions by flow injection flame atomic absorption spectrometry

Abstract

A rapid, simple and cost effective solidified floating organic drop microextraction (SFODME) and flow injection flame atomic absorption spectrometric determination (FI-FAAS) method for copper was developed. In this method, a free microdrop of 1-undecanol containing 1,5-diphenyl carbazide (DPC) as the complexing agent was transferred to the surface of an aqueous sample including Cu(II) ions, while being agitated by a stirring bar in the bulk of the solution. Under the proper stirring conditions, the suspended microdrop can remain at the top-center position of the aqueous sample. After the completion of the extraction, the sample vial was cooled by placing it in a refrigerator for 10 min. The solidified microdrop was then transferred into a conical vial, where it melted immediately and diluted to 300 μL with ethanol. Finally, copper ions in 200 μL of diluted solution were determined by FI-FAAS. Several factors affecting the microextraction efficiency, such as type of extraction solvent, pH, complexing agent concentration, extraction time, stirring rate, sample volume and temperature were investigated and optimized. Under optimized conditions for 100 mL of solution, the preconcentration factor was 333 and the enrichment factor was 324. The limit of detection (3 s) was 0.4 ng mL −1, the limit of quantification (10 s) was 1.1 ng mL −1 and the relative standard deviation (RSD) for 10 replicate measurements of 10 ng mL −1 copper was 0.9%. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of copper in different water samples.