Determination of trace metals in vegetables and water samples using dispersive ultrasound-assisted cloud point-dispersive µ-solid phase extraction coupled with inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry

Abstract

A simple method combining ultrasound assisted cloud point extraction (UA-CPE) and dispersive μ-solid phase extraction (D-μ-SPE) was developed for preconcentration of As, Cd, Cr, Co, Sb, Pb and Tl to inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometric (ICP-OES). At optimum conditions, the linearity, limits of detection and limits of quantification were 0.20–1000 µg L−1, 90–150 ng L−1 and 200–500 ng L−1, respectively. The intraday (n = 20) and intraday (n = 5) precisions reported as the relative standard deviation ranged from 1.5 to 3.5% and 1.9–4.5%. The trueness of the method was investigated using CRM BCR679, NIST SRM 1573a, and SRM 1640a, as well as spiked recovery experiments. Satisfactory recoveries and relative errors ranging from 97 to 99.3% and −4.0 to 2.4% were obtained. The proposed UA-CPE-D-µ-SPE/ICP-OES method was successfully applied for various real samples such as groundwater, bottled mineral water, river water and borehole water and food samples.