Ultra-preconcentration technique for the determination of thallium (I) in water samples by a combination of thallium (I)-imprinted polymer and vortex-assisted liquid–liquid microextraction

Abstract

In this research study, thallium(I)-imprinted polymer and vortex-assisted liquid–liquid microextraction methods were used for ultra-preconcentration and extraction of thallium (I) ions for consecution in ultra-trace level in aqueous solution. In the first extraction step, ion-imprinted polymer particles were applied as a selective technique. Next, the eluted solution is used for extraction with the vortex-assisted liquid–liquid microextraction technique. There are several factors that have an effect on the two processes. They were studied to improve the separation performance. The advantages of the method are good linear range (0.015–0.8 ngmL−1), low detection limit (2.1 pgmL−1), and ultra-trace level determination thallium (I) ions. The new procedure has a high-preconcentration factor (PF = 2000) for determining of thallium (I) ions in water samples. The relative standard deviation for five replicate analyses of 0.1 ng mL−1 of thallium(I) was 4.8%. The recovery percentage of thallium was calculated from the electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry results. The thallium(I)-imprinted polymer and vortex-assisted liquid–liquid microextraction method was successfully employed to determine thallium (I) ions in industrial wastewater, well water, and urban sewage samples with a satisfactory recovery in the range of 90 to 98%.