Dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction for simultaneous determination of cadmium, cobalt, lead and nickel in water samples by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry

We report on a new method for the dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction of Cd(II), Co(II), Pb(II) and Ni (II) from water samples prior to their simultaneous determination by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The procedure is based on the injection of a ternary solvent system composed of appropriate quantities of extraction solvent (trichloroethylene), dispersive solvent (ethanol), and the chelating reagent 2-(2'-benzothiazolylazo)-p-cresol into the sample solution. The solution turns turbid immediately after injection, and the analytes are extracted into the droplets of the organic phase which was dried and dissolved in a mixture of Triton X-114, nitric acid, and ethanol. The metal ions in this mixture were quantified by ICP-OES. The detection limits under optimized conditions are 0.2, 0.3, 0.2 and 0.7 mu g L-1 for Cd(II), Co(II), Pb(II) and Ni(II), respectively. The enrichment factors were also calculated for Cd (13), Co (11), Pb (11) and Ni (8). The procedure was applied to the determination of cadmium, cobalt, lead and nickel in certified reference material (waterway sediment) and water samples.