Hydrophilic and hydrophobic deep eutectic solvent-based extraction to determine parathion in cereals by digital image colorimetry integrated with smartphones

Abstract

To determine parathion in cereals, hydrophilic and hydrophobic deep eutectic solvents (DESs) were used by digital image colorimetry with smartphones. In the solid-liquid extraction part, hydrophilic DESs were used as extractants to extract parathion from cereals. In the liquid-liquid microextraction part, hydrophobic DESs dissociated into terpineol and tetrabutylammonium bromide in situ. The dissociated hydrophilic tetrabutylammonium ions reacted with parathion extracted in hydrophilic DESs under alkaline conditions to produce a yellow product, which was extracted and concentrated by dispersed organic phase terpinol. Digital image colorimetry integrated with the use of a smartphone was used for quantitative analysis. The limit of detection and quantification were 0.003 mg kg−1 and 0.01 mg kg−1, respectively. The recoveries for parathion were 94.8–106.2% with a relative standard deviation less than 3.6%. The proposed method was applied to analyze parathion in cereal samples: the method has the potential to be applied to pesticide residue analysis in food products.