Preparation of a magnetic sorbent based on Tanacetum extract and its application in the extraction of Cu(II) and Pb(II) ions from milk performed in a narrow-bore tube followed by dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction

Abstract

In this work, an efficient magnetic sorbent has been prepared using the extract of Tanacetum leaves and used in magnetic dispersive solid phase extraction of Cu(II) and Pb(II) ions from high volume of milk samples performed in a narrow-bore tube. For this purpose, first, the sorbent was prepared by mixing Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles and Tanacetum leaves extract. After precipitation of the milk proteins with trichloroacetic acid, the sedimented compounds were removed and the upper solution was filled into the narrow-bore tube. Then after that, the mg-level of the prepared sorbent was added. After doing the extraction procedure, the sorbent particles were removed from the tube in the presence of a magnetic field. The adsorbed analytes were desorbed by methanol and to achieve low detection limits, the eluent obtained from the first step was subjected to dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction. Finally, the enriched analytes were monitored by flame atomic absorption spectrometry. The important parameters affecting the method efficiency such as the sorbent amount, type and volume of elution and extraction solvents, vortex time, pH, and ionic strength were studied. Under optimized conditions, the proposed method showed linear ranges of 0.50–40 and 0.75–40 µg L−1 for Cu(II) and Pb(II) ions, respectively. Limits of detection were obtained 0.16 and 0.22 µg L−1 for Cu(II) and Pb(II), respectively. Enrichment factors of 182.5 and 173.7 and extraction recoveries of 95.8 % and 91.2 % were obtained for Cu(II) and Pb(II), respectively. The relative standard deviations (intra- and inter-day precisions) for 5 and 25 µg L−1 of each cation were between 2.4 % and 4.3 %.