The Quality of Yıldız River Water and Determining Trace Elements by Liquid-Liquid Micro-Extraction Analytical Method

Abstract

The present study was carried out between September 2019 and March 2020 in Yıldız River, which is located within the borders of the Yıldızeli district of Sivas province and used for agricultural irrigation purposes, to determine the chemical characteristics of river water and the trace elements. Water’s alkalinity, chemical oxygen demand (COD), chloride (Cl-), calcium (Ca2+), total hardness, total phosphate (PO4-P), dissolved reactive phosphate (SRP), ammonium nitrogen (NH4-N), nitrate-nitrogen (NO3-N), nitrite-nitrogen (NO2-N), soluble reactive silica (SiO2-Si) concentrations, as well as trace elements (ferrous, lead, cadmium). Moreover, during the sampling process, also the water temperature, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, pH, and total dissolved solids measurements were performed. Before using the flame atomic absorption spectrometer (FAAS) in determining the Fe, Pb, and Cd in water samples, a simple, environment-friendly, and new ultrasonic liquid-liquid micro-extraction method was suggested. Several parameters (pH, ionic fluid amount, dispersive solvent volume, and temperature) influencing the performance of micro-extraction were optimized. Under the optimized conditions, the detection thresholds for Fe (II), Pb (II), and Cd (II) were found to be 0.6, 0.15, and 1.5 μg L-1, respectively.