Ultrasound-assisted emulsification microextraction and preconcentration of trace amounts of silver ions as a cyclam complex

Gholamreza Khayatian,Bahareh Pourbahram

doi:10.1186/s40543-016-0083-8

Gholamreza Khayatian, Bahareh Pourbahram

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40543-016-0083-8

Copy DOI

Abstract

Silver has been recognized as a toxic element for biological systems. A low level of exposure to silver compounds is widespread owing to the use of soluble silver compounds to disinfect water for drinking and reaction purposes. The present paper describes an ultrasound-assisted emulsification microextraction method for the preconcentration and determination of silver ions in drinking water. Determination was carried out using 1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane as a complexing reagent and chloroform as extracting solvent, followed by flame atomic absorption determination of silver ions. The main factors affecting microextraction efficiency, such as extraction solvent type and volume, concentration of chelating reagent, concentration of picrate ions, and pH, were optimized. Under optimal conditions, a limit of detection and enrichment factor of 6.79 ng mL−1 and 9.8 were obtained for silver ions, respectively. The analytical curve was linear in the range of 0.055–1.5 μg mL−1, with a correlation coefficient (R 2) of 0.997. The use of ultrasound as a powerful energy for the microextraction and determination of silver was proposed. The main advantages of the method are as follows: minimum use of toxic organic solvent and wide linear dynamic range.

Highlights

Silver has been recognized as a toxic element for biological systems
We report a simple ultrasound-assisted emulsification microextraction (USAEME) method for the preconcentration and flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS) determination of silver ions using 1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane as a complexing agent and CHCl3 as an extraction solvent
The effect of interfering ions was investigated, and different natural water samples and a radiological film sample were subjected to analysis via the recommended method to evaluate the concentration of silver ions

Summary

Introduction

Silver has been recognized as a toxic element for biological systems. A low level of exposure to silver compounds is widespread owing to the use of soluble silver compounds to disinfect water for drinking and reaction purposes. The most widely used techniques for separation and preconcentration of trace amounts of silver ions are coprecipitation (Mao et al 1998), solidphase extraction (SPE) (Rofouei et al 2009; Shamsipur et al 2002; Safavi et al 2004; Khayatian and Hassanpoor 2012a), liquid–liquid extraction (LLE) (Koh and Sugimoto 1996), and cloud point extraction (CPE) (Manzoori et al 2007 and Dalali et al 2008) Most of these methods are laborious, time-consuming, and require large volumes of toxic organic solvents. The phase separation is performed by centrifugation, and the analyte is determined in the sedimented phase by instrumental methods

Methods

Results

Conclusion