Dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction with back extraction based on in situ deep eutectic solvent decomposition and air-assisted for determination of some antidepressant drugs in biological samples prior to HPLC-UV

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this study, a dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction along with a back-extraction step (DLLME-BE) has been developed for the determination of thre antidepressant drugs (citalopram, sertraline, and venlafaxine) in biological samples prior to HPLC-UV. Briefly, the method involved two main steps: first, a deep eutectic solvent (DES) composed of tetrabutylammonium bromide (TBABr as a dispersive agent) and 1-dodecanol (as the extraction solvent) was decomposed in an aqueous phase and led to in situ dispersion of the organic phase and extraction of analytes. . Second, Air-assisted liquid–liquid microextraction (AALLME) was applied to back-extract analytes into 50 µL of an aqueous acceptor phase while many interferences were not able to extract into the acceptor solution. By performing this developed extraction method, a high sample clean-up was achieved. The maximum efficiency of analytes was obtained based on the optimisation of the main parameters. Validation of the method indicated that the limits of detection (LODs) and limits of quantifications (LOQs) were in the range of 0.7–3.9 µg L−1 and 2.1–9.8 µg L−1 respectively. The extraction recoveries and enrichment factors of analytes were obtained to be in the range of 87.1–99.1% and 89–102, respectively. Finally, the method was utilised for extraction of three antidepressant drugs in water, human urine and plasma samples.