Preconcentration of atrazine and simazine with multiwalled carbon nanotubes as solid-phase extraction disk

A sensitive and selective preconcentration method using solid-phase extraction (SPE) disk, namely multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) disk, is proposed for the determination of atrazine and simazine in water samples. Atrazine and simazine were extracted on MWCNTs disk and then determined by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Several parameters on the enrichment factor of the analytes were investigated. The experimental results showed that it was possible to obtain quantitative analysis when the solution pH was 5 using 200 mL of validation solution containing 0.1 μg of triazines and 5 mL of acetone as an eluent. The maximum enrichment factors for atrazine and simazine were 3900 ± 250 and 4000 ± 110, respectively when 200 mL of sample solution volume was used. Relative standard deviations for seven determinations were 6.9% (atrazine) and 3.0% (simazine) under optimum conditions. The linear range of calibration curves were 0.1 to 1 ng mL^− 1 for each analyte with good correlation coefficients. The detection limits (3S/N) were 2.5 and 5.0 pg mL^− 1 for atrazine and simazine, respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of atrazine and simazine in environmental water samples with high precision and accuracy.     

Determination of atrazine and simazine in water samples by high-performance liquid chromatography after preconcentration with heat-treated diatomaceous earth

A sensitive and selective column adsorption method is proposed for the preconcentration and determination of atrazine and simazine. Atrazine and simazine were preconcentrated on heat-treated diatomaceous earth as an adsorbent and then determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Several parameters on the recoveries of the analytes were investigated. The experimental results showed that it was possible to obtain quantitative analysis when the solution pH was 2 using 100 mL of validation solution containing 1.5 μg of triazines and 5 mL of ethanol as an eluent. Recoveries of atrazine and simazine were 95.7 ± 4.2% and 75.0 ± 1.9% with a relative standard deviation for seven determinations of 4.7% and 2.7% under optimum conditions. The maximum preconcentration factor was 100 for triazines when 500 mL of sample solution volume was used. The linear ranges of calibration curves for atrazine and simazine were 1-150 ng mL⁻¹ and 1-300 ng mL⁻¹, respectively, with correlation coefficients of 0.999 and the detection limits (3Signal-to-Noise) were 0.24 ng mL⁻¹ and 0.21 ng mL⁻¹ for atrazine and simazine. The capacity of the adsorbent was also examined and found to be 0.8 mg g⁻¹ and 1.3 mg g⁻¹ for atrazine and simazine, respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of triazines in river water and tap water samples with high precision and accuracy.     

Determination of simazine in water samples by HPLC after preconcentration with diatomaceous earth

A sensitive and selective batch adsorption method is proposed for the preconcentration and determination of simazine. Simazine was preconcentrated on diatomaceous earth as an adsorbent and then determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Several parameters on the recovery of the analyte were investigated. The experimental results showed that it was possible to obtain quantitative analysis when the solution pH was 2 using 100 mL of validation solution containing 1.5 μg of simazine and 5 mL of ethanol as an eluent. Recovery of simazine was 89.0 ± 1.6% with a relative standard deviation for seven determinations of 1.5% under optimum conditions. The maximum preconcentration factor was 100 for simazine when 500 mL of sample solution volume was used. The linear range of calibration curve was 1-200 ng mL⁻¹ with a correlation coefficient of 0.996 and the detection limit (3S/N) was 0.3 ng mL⁻¹. The capacity of the adsorbent was also examined and found to be 1.1 mg g⁻¹ for simazine. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of simazine in river water with high precision and accuracy.     

Preconcentration of diazinon using multiwalled carbon nanotubes as solid-phase extraction adsorbents

A sensitive and selective column adsorption method is proposed for the preconcentration and determination of diazinon. Diazinon was preconcentrated on multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) as an adsorbent and then determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Several parameters on the recovery of the analyte were investigated. The experimental results showed that it was possible to obtain quantitative analysis when the solution pH was 6 using 200 mL of validation solution containing 2 μg of diazinon and 5 mL of acetonitrile as an eluent. Recovery of diazinon was 95.2 ± 4.2% with a relative standard deviation for seven determinations of 4.9% under optimum conditions. The maximum preconcentration factor was 200 for diazinon when 1000 mL of sample solution volume was used. The linear range of calibration curve was 0.3 to 10,000 ng mL^− 1 with a correlation coefficient of 0.997 and the detection limit (3S/N) was 0.06 ng mL^− 1. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of diazinon in tap water with high precision and accuracy.     

Flame atomic absorption spectrometry for the determination of trace amount of rhodium after separation and preconcentration onto modified multiwalled carbon nanotubes as a new solid sorbent

The present article reports on the application of modified multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MMWCNTs) as a new, easily prepared and stable solid sorbent for the preconcentration of trace rhodium ion in aqueous solution. Rhodium ions were complexed with 1-(2-pyridylazo)-2-naphthol (PAN) in the pH range of 3.2-4.7 and then the formed Rh-PAN complex was adsorbed on the oxidized MWCNTs. The adsorbed complex was eluted from MWCNTs sorbent with 5.0 mL of N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF). The rhodium in eluted solution was determined by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS). Linear range for the determination of rhodium was maintained between 0.16 ng mL⁻¹ and 25.0 μg mL⁻¹ in initial solution. Relative standard deviation for the 10 replicated determination of 4.0 μg mL⁻¹ of rhodium was ±0.97%. Detection limit was 0.010 ng mL⁻¹ in initial solution (3S_bl, n = 10) and preconcentration factor was 120. Sensitivity for 1% absorbance of rhodium (III) was 0.112 μg mL⁻¹. The sorption capacity of oxidized MWCNTs for Rh (III) was 6.6 mg g⁻¹. The effects of the experimental parameters, including the sample pH, flow rates of sample and eluent solution, eluent type, breakthrough volume and interference ions were studied for the preconcentration of Rh³⁺. The proposed method was successfully applied to the extraction and determination of rhodium in different samples.     

Determination of triazine herbicides in human body fluids by solid-phase microextraction and capillary gas chromatography

Summary Eight triazine herbicides, prometon, propazine, atrazine, simazine, prometryn, ametryn, metribuzin, and cyanazine, have been extracted from human whole blood and urine samples by headspace solid-phase microextraction (SPME) with a polydimethylsiloxane-coated fiber and quantified by capillary gas chromatography with nitrogen-phosphorus detection. Extraction efficiencies for all compounds were 0.21–0.99% for whole blood, except for cyanazine (0.06%). For urine, the extraction efficiencies for prometon, propazine, atrazine, prometryn and ametryn were 13.6–38.1%, and those of simazine, metribuzin and cyanazine were 1.35–8.73%. The regression equations for the compounds extracted from whole blood were linear within the concentration ranged 0.01–1 μg (0.5 mL)⁻¹ for prometon, propazine, atrazine, prometryn, and ametryn, and 0.02–1 μg (0.5 mL)⁻¹ for simazine, metribuzin, and cyanazine. For urine, regression equations for all compounds were linear within the concentration range 0.005–0.25 μg mL⁻¹. Compound detection limits were 2.8–9.0 ng (0.5 mL)⁻¹ and 0.4–2.0 ng mL⁻¹ for whole blood and urine, respectively. The coefficients of within-day and day-to-day variation were satisfactory for all the compounds, and not greater than 10.3 and 14.2%, respectively. Data obtained from determination of atrazine in rat whole blood after oral administration of the compound are also presented.     

Flame atomic absorption spectrometry determination of trace amounts of copper after separation and preconcentration onto TDMBAC-treated analcime pyrocatechol-immobilized

A simple and reliable method has been developed for green separation and preconcentration of trace amounts of copper ions in aqueous solutions for subsequent measurement by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS). The Cu²⁺ ions are adsorbed selectively and quantitatively during the passage of an aqueous solution through TDMBAC-treated analcime pyrocatechol-immobilized. The retained copper ions were desorbed from the column with 5.0 mL of 4 mol L⁻¹ nitric acid solutions as eluent and were determined by FAAS. The linear range was 0.2-75 ng mL⁻¹ in the original solution with a correlation coefficient of 0.9987. In this case we can concentrate 0.1 μg of copper from 1000 mL of solution and the proposed method permits a large enrichment factor (about 200). The detection limit of the proposed method is 0.05 ng mL⁻¹ in the original solution (2σ_bl). Determination of copper in standard alloys showed that the proposed method has good accuracy (recovery was more than 97%). The method was successfully applied for recovery and determination of copper in several water samples.     

Determination of atrazine and simazine in environmental water samples using multiwalled carbon nanotubes as the adsorbents for preconcentration prior to high performance liquid chromatography with diode array detector

Multiwalled carbon nanotubes, a new nanoscale material, has been gained many interests for use in various fields, and has exhibited exceptional merit as SPE absorbents for enrichment of environmental pollutants. This paper focused on the enriching power of atrazine and simazine, two important widely used triazine herbicides and described a novel and sensitive method for determination of these two herbicides based on SPE using multiwalled carbon nanotubes as solid phase absorbents followed by high performance liquid chromatography with diode array detector. Factors that maybe affect the enrichment efficiency of multiwalled carbon nanotubes such as the volume of eluent, sample flow rate, sample pH, and volume of the water samples were optimized. Under the optimal procedures, multiwalled carbon nanotubes as the absorbents have obtained excellent enrichment efficiency for atrazine and simazine. The detection limits of the atrazine and simazine were 33 and 9 ng l⁻¹, respectively. The spiked recoveries of the two analytes were over the range of 82.6-103.7% in most cases. Good analytical performance was achieved from real-world water samples such as river water, reservoir water, tap water and wastewater after primary pretreatment with proposed method. All these experimental results indicated that the developed method could be used as an alternative for the routine analysis of atrazine and simazine in many real water samples.     

A disposable chronocoulometric sensor for heavy metal ions using a diaminoterthiophene-modified electrode doped with graphene oxide

The rapid simultaneous determination of cadmium, lead, copper, and mercury ions is performed by employing a disposable sensor modified with graphene oxide (GO) doped diaminoterthiophene (GO/DTT) for chronocoulometry (CC). The performances of CC with and without pre-deposition in two opposite potential step directions were compared with square wave anodic stripping voltammetry (SWASV) under various conditions. The surface of the GO/DTT modified screen print carbon electrode (SPCE) was characterized by SEM, EDXS, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Experimental variables that affect the response signal such as the pH, deposition time, type of supporting electrolyte, concentration of DTT, content ratio of GO to DTT, and Nafion content were optimized. Interference effects due to other heavy metal ions were also investigated. The dynamic ranges of SWASV and CC were between 1 ng mL⁻¹ and 2.5 μg mL⁻¹ and between 1 ng mL⁻¹ and 10 μg mL⁻¹, respectively. The detection limits for Cd²⁺, Pb²⁺, Cu²⁺, Hg²⁺ ions were 1.9 ± 0.4 ng mL⁻¹, 2.8 ± 0.6 ng mL⁻¹, 0.8 ± 0.2 ng mL⁻¹, and 2.6 ± 0.9 ng mL⁻¹ for the CC stripping method; 2.6 ± 0.2 ng mL⁻¹, 0.5 ± 0.1 ng mL⁻¹, 1.8 ± 0.3 ng mL⁻¹, and 3.2 ± 0.3 ng mL⁻¹ for the CC deposition method; and 7.1 ± 0.9, 1.9 ± 0.3, 0.4 ± 0.1, and 0.7 ± 0.1 ng mL⁻¹ for SWASV. The reliability of the method for point-of-analysis was evaluated by analyzing a urine standard reference material and some water samples.     

Headspace solid-phase microextraction using a dodecylsulfate-doped polypyrrole film coupled to ion mobility spectrometry for the simultaneous determination of atrazine and ametryn in soil and water samples

A simple and rapid headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) based method is presented for the simultaneous determination of atrazine and ametryn in soil and water samples by ion mobility spectrometry (IMS). A dodecylsulfate-doped polypyrrole (PPy-DS), synthesized by electrochemical method, was applied as a laboratory-made fiber for SPME. The HS-SPME system was designed with a cooling device on the upper part of the sample vial and a circulating water bath for adjusting the sample temperature. The extraction properties of the fiber to spiked soil and water samples with atrazine and ametryn were examined, using a HS-SPME device and thermal desorption in injection port of IMS. Parameters affecting the extraction efficiency such as the volume of water added to the soil, pH effect, extraction time, extraction temperature, salt effect, desorption time, and desorption temperature were investigated. The HS-SPME-IMS method with PPy-DS fiber, provided good repeatability (RSDs < 10 %), simplicity, good sensitivity and short analysis times for spiked soil (200 ng g⁻¹) and water samples (100 and 200 ng mL⁻¹). The calibration graphs were linear in the range of 200-4000 ng g⁻¹ and 50-2800 ng mL⁻¹ for soil and water respectively (R² > 0.99). Detection limits for atrazine and ametryn were 37 ng g⁻¹ (soil) and 23 ng g⁻¹ (soil) and 15 ng mL⁻¹ (water) and 10 ng mL⁻¹ (water), respectively. To evaluate the accuracy of the proposed method, atrazine and ametryn in the three kinds of soils and two well water samples were determined. Finally, comparing the HS-SPME results for extraction and determination of selected triazines using PPy-DS fiber with the other methods in literature shows that the proposed method has comparable detection limits and RSDs and good linear ranges.     

New competitive dendrimer-based and highly selective immunosensor for determination of atrazine in environmental,feed and food samples: The importance of antibody selectivity for discrimination among related triazinic metabolites

A new voltammetric competitive immunosensor selective for atrazine, based on the immobilization of a conjugate atrazine-bovine serum albumine on a nanostructured gold substrate previously functionalized with poliamidoaminic dendrimers, was realized, characterized, and validated in different real samples of environmental and food concern. Response of the sensor was reliable, highly selective and suitable for the detection and quantification of atrazine at trace levels in complex matrices such as territorial waters, corn-cultivated soils, corn-containing poultry and bovine feeds and corn flakes for human use. Selectivity studies were focused on desethylatrazine, the principal metabolite generated by long-term microbiological degradation of atrazine, terbutylazine-2-hydroxy and simazine as potential interferents. The response of the developed immunosensor for atrazine was explored over the 10⁻²–10³ ng mL⁻¹ range. Good sensitivity was proved, as limit of detection and limit of quantitation of 1.2 and 5 ng mL⁻¹, respectively, were estimated for atrazine. RSD values <5% over the entire explored range attested a good precision of the device.     

Development of ultrasound-assisted emulsification microextraction for the determination of triazine herbicides in environmental water samples by high-performance liquid chromatography

A simple, rapid, efficient, and environmentally friendly method for the determination of some triazine herbicides (simazine, atrazine, prometone, ametryn and prometryne) in water samples was developed by ultrasound-assisted emulsification microextraction (USAEME) coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection (HPLC-DAD). The main parameters that affect the extraction efficiencies, such as the kind and volume of the extraction solvent, ultrasound emulsification time and salt addition, were investigated and optimized. Under the optimum conditions, the method was sensitive and showed a good linearity within a range of 0.5 to 200?ngm?L^?1 for simazine, atrazine, prometone, ametryn and prometryne, with the correlation coefficients (r) varying from 0.9993 to 0.9998. High enrichment factors were obtained ranging from 148 to 225. The limits of detection (LODs) were in the range between 0.06 and 0.1?ngm?L^?1 and the limits of quantification (LOQs) were in the range between 0.2 and 0.3?ngm?L^?1. The recoveries of the analytes from water samples at spiking levels of 5.0 and 50.0?ngm?L^?1 were ranged from 82.4% to 107.0%. The relative standard deviations (RSDs) varied from 3.0% to 4.6%. The results demonstrated that the USAEME-HPLC-DAD method was an ef?cient pretreatment and enrichment procedure for the determination of triazine pesticides in real water samples.     

Development and application of immunoaffinity column chromatography for atrazine in complex sample media

A rabbit antibody immunoaffinity (IA) column procedure was evaluated as a cleanup method for the determination of atrazine in soil, sediment, and food. Four IA columns were prepared by immobilizing a polyclonal rabbit anti-atrazine antibody solution to HiTrap Sepharose columns. Atrazine was bound to the IA columns when the loading solvents were either 100% water, 2% acetonitrile in water, or 10% methanol in phosphate buffered saline (PBS). Quantitative removal of atrazine from the IA columns was achieved with elution solvents of either 70% ethanol in water, 70% methanol in water, or 100% methanol. One control column was prepared using nonspecific rabbit IgG antibody. This control column did not retain any applied atrazine indicating atrazine did not bind indiscriminately to protein or the Sepharose support. The four IA columns showed reproducible coupling efficiency for the immobilization of the atrazine antibody and consistent binding and releasing of atrazine. The coupling efficiency (4.25 mg of antibody in 1 mL of resin bed) for the four IA columns ranged from 93 to 97% with an average of 96 ± 2% (2.1%). Recoveries of the 500, 50, and 5 ng mL⁻¹ atrazine standard solutions from the four IA columns were 107 ± 7% (6.5%), 122 ± 14% (12%), and 114 ± 9% (8.0%) respectively, based on enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) data. The maximum loading was approximately 700 ng of atrazine for each IA column (∼0.16 μg of atrazine per mg of antibody). The IA columns could withstand 100% methanol as the elution solvent and could be reused more than 50 times with no change in performance. The IA columns were challenged with soil, sediment, and duplicate-diet food samples and effectively removed interferences from these various matrices for subsequent gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) or ELISA analysis. The log-transformed ELISA and GC/MS data were significantly correlated for soil, sediment and food samples although the ELISA values were slightly higher than those obtained by GC/MS. The IA column cleanup procedure coupled with ELISA analysis could be used as an alternative effective analytical method for the determination of atrazine in complex sample media such as soil, sediment, and food samples.     

Hollow fiber supported liquid membrane extraction for ultrasensitive determination of trace lead by portable tungsten coil electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry

Hollow fiber supported liquid membrane extraction (HF-SLME) was used to separate and enrich trace lead from a large volume of 250 mL water sample to a final tiny volume of 30 μL of 1-octanol, 5 μL of which was inject into a tungsten coil electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometer (W-coil ET-AAS) for determination of lead. Some important parameters that influenced the extraction and determination were investigated in detail, such as the concentration of ammonium pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (APDC), pH of sample solution, stirring rate, extraction time, pyrolysis current, atomization current, carrier gas flow rate, as well as interferences. Under the optimized conditions, a practical enrichment factor of 499 and a limit of detection (3σ) of 0.2 ng mL^{− 1} were obtained. The calibration curve was linear in the range of 0.5–10 ng mL^{− 1}. The relative standard deviation (RSD) was 5.6% for five measurements of a 4 ng mL^{− 1} lead standard solution. The accuracy of this method was examined by the analysis of certified reference water samples (GBW(E)080398 and GSBZ(E) 50009-88) for lead. Finally, the proposed method was applied to the determination of lead in local tap water, pond water and river water, with recoveries in the range of 96–109% for spiked samples.     

Ultrasound-assisted emulsification-microextraction coupled to ion mobility spectrometry for monitoring of atrazine and simazine in environmental water

Triazine herbicides and some of their transformation products are considered as one of the most important classes of chemical pollutants owing to their widespread use and toxicity. Triazines and their degradation products have caused concern because they are toxic and persistent in water, soil, and organisms. The present paper describes the validation of ultrasound-assisted emulsification-microextraction (USAEME) method for determination of atrazine and simazine using ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) in environmental water. The parameters influencing the extraction efficiency such as sonication time, extraction solvent, extraction volume and salt concentration were investigated. Under the optimum conditions, enrichment factors was 170 and 150 with corresponding LOD of 8 and 12 μg/L for atrazine and simazine respectively . Linearity with a coefficient of estimation (r²) were >0.99 in the concentration level range of 15–1500 μg/L and 20–1700 μg/L for extraction of atrazine and simazine in water samples. The proposed method successfully was applied to screen of atrazine and simazine in environmental water.     

Application of bamboo charcoal as solid-phase extraction adsorbent for the determination of atrazine and simazine in environmental water samples by high-performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet detector

In this article, a new method for the determination of triazine herbicides atrazine and simazine in environment aqueous samples was developed. It was based on solid-phase extraction (SPE) using bamboo charcoal as adsorbent and high-performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet detector (HPLC-UV) for the enrichment and determination of atrazine and simazine at trace level. Related important factors influencing the extraction efficiency, such as the kind of eluent and its volume, flow rate of the sample, pH of the sample, and volume of the sample, were investigated and optimized in detail. Under the optimal conditions, the experimental results showed that excellent linearity was obtained over the range of 0.5–30 μg L⁻¹ with correlation coefficients 0.9991 and 0.9982, for atrazine and simazine, respectively; and the relative standard deviations of two analytes were 8.3, 8.7%, respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied to the analysis of tap water and well water samples. And satisfactory spiked recoveries were obtained in the range of 75.2–107.1%. The above results indicated that the developed method was an excellent alternative for the routine analysis in environmental field.     

An ultrasensitive streptavidin-functionalized carbon nanotubes platform for chemiluminescent immunoassay

An ultrasensitive chemiluminescent (CL) immunoassay system was developed for the detection of tumor marker. This sandwich CL assay method was for the first time designed based on a highly efficient streptavidin-functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) platform. The glass slide was firstly silylanized with 3-gycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane (GPTMS) to generate surface epoxy group functionality. Subsequently, the MWCNTs/chitosan solution was mixed with streptavidin solution, and a certain amount of the resulting suspension was dropped on the surface of the epoxy-activated glass substrate to form a firm streptavidin-functionalized MWCNTs platform. The biofunctionalized-MWCNTs platform shows large reactive surface area and excellent biocompatibility. The capture antibody can be efficiently immobilized on the biosensing platform surface based on the highly selective recognition of streptavidin to biotinylated antibody. Using α-fetoprotein (AFP) as model analyte, the proposed method exhibits wide linear range of 0.001–0.1 ng mL⁻¹ with a low detection limit down to 0.52 pg mL⁻¹. The CL immunoassay system displays 7.9-fold increase in the detection sensitivity compared to the immunosensor without using MWCNTs. Moreover, the resulting immunosensor demonstrates excellent specificity, good reproducibility, and acceptable stability. This streptavidin-functionalized MWCNTs platform opens a novel and promising avenue for fabricating ultrasensitive CL immunoassay system.     

Ultrasound-assisted surfactant-enhanced emulsification microextraction for the determination of carbamate pesticides in water samples by high performance liquid chromatography

A novel ultrasound-assisted surfactant-enhanced emulsification microextraction (UASEME) coupled with high performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection has been developed for the extraction and determination of six carbamate pesticides (metolcarb, carbofuran, carbaryl, pirimicarb, isoprocarb and diethofencarb) in water samples. In the UASEME technique, Tween 20 was used as emulsifier, and chlorobenzene and chloroform were used as dual extraction solvent without using any organic dispersive solvent that is normally required in the previously described common dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction method. Parameters that affect the extraction efficiency, such as the kind and volume of the extraction solvent, the type and concentration of the surfactant, ultrasound emulsification time and salt addition, were investigated and optimized for the method. Under the optimum conditions, the enrichment factors were in the range between 170 and 246. The limits of detection of the method were 0.1–0.3 ng mL⁻¹ and the limits of quantification were between 0.3 and 0.9 ng mL⁻¹, depending on the compounds. The linearity of the method was obtained in the range of 0.3–200 ng mL⁻¹ for metolcarb, carbaryl, pirimicarb, and diethofencarb, 0.6–200 ng mL⁻¹ for carbofuran, and 0.9–200 ng mL⁻¹ for isoprocarb, with the correlation coefficients (r) ranging from 0.9982 to 0.9998. The relative standard deviations varied from 3.2 to 4.8% (n = 5). The recoveries of the method for the six carbamates from water samples at spiking levels of 1.0, 10.0, 50.0 and 100.0 ng mL⁻¹ were ranged from 81.0 to 97.5%. The proposed UASEME technique has demonstrated to be simple, practical and environmentally friendly for the determination of carbamates residues in river, reservoir and well water samples.     

Ligandless-dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction of trace amount of copper ions

In the present work, a new ligandless-dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (LL-DLLME) method has been developed for preconcentration trace amounts of copper as a prior step to its determination by flame atomic absorption spectrometry. In the proposed approach 1,2-dicholorobenzene and ethanol were used as extraction and dispersive solvents, respectively. Some factors influencing on the extraction efficiency of copper and its subsequent determination were studied and optimized, such as the extraction and dispersive solvent type and volume, pH of sample solution, extraction time and salting out effect. Under the optimal conditions, the calibration curve was linear in the range of 1.0 ng mL⁻¹-0.6 μg mL⁻¹ of copper with R² = 0.9985. Detection limit was 0.5 ng mL⁻¹ in original solution (3S_b/m) and the relative standard deviation for seven replicate determination of 0.2 μg mL⁻¹ copper was ±1.4%. The proposed method has been applied for determination of copper in standard and water samples with satisfactory results.     

Simultaneous determination of several phytohormones in natural coconut juice by hollow fiber-based liquid–liquid–liquid microextraction-high performance liquid chromatography

A simple, selective, sensitive and inexpensive method of hollow fiber-based liquid–liquid–liquid microextraction (HF-LLLME) combined with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-ultraviolet (UV) detection was developed for the determination of four acidic phytohormones (salicylic acid (SA), indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), (±) abscisic acid (ABA) and (±) jasmonic acid (JA)) in natural coconut juice. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the use of liquid phase microextraction (LPME) as a sample pretreatment technique for the simultaneous analysis of several phytohormones. Using phenetole to fill the pores of hollow fiber as the organic phase, 0.1 mol L⁻¹ NaOH solution in the lumen of hollow fiber as the acceptor phase and 1 mol L⁻¹ HCl as the donor phase, a simultaneous preconcentration of four target phytohormones was realized. The acceptor phase was finally withdrawn into the microsyringe and directly injected into HPLC for the separation and quantification of the target phytohormones. The factors affecting the extraction efficiency of four phytohormones by HF-LLLME were optimized with orthogonal design experiment, and the data was analyzed by Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) software. Under the optimized conditions, the enrichment factors for SA, IAA, ABA and JA were 243, 215, 52 and 48, with the detection limits (S/N = 3) of 4.6, 1.3, 0.9 ng mL⁻¹ and 8.8 μg mL⁻¹, respectively. The relative standard deviations (RSDs, n = 7) were 7.9, 4.9, 6.8% at 50 ng mL⁻¹ level for SA, IAA, ABA and 8.4% at 500 μg mL⁻¹ for JA, respectively. To evaluate the accuracy of the method, the developed method was applied for the simultaneous analysis of several phytohormones in five natural coconut juice samples, and the recoveries for the spiked samples were in the range of 88.3–119.1%.