Determination of copper traces in water samples by flow injection-flame atomic absorption spectrometry using a novel solidified floating organic drop microextraction method

A simple, rapid and inexpensive solidified floating organic drop microextraction (SFODME) and flow injection flame atomic absorption spectrometric determination (FI-FAAS) method for copper were developed. 3-amino-7-dimethylamino-2-methylphenazine (Neutral red, NR) was used as the complexing agent. Several factors affecting the microextraction efficiency, such as, pH, NR and sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate (SDBS) concentration, extraction time, stirring rate, and temperature were investigated and optimized. Under optimized experimental conditions an enrichment factor of 541 was obtained for 100 mL of sample solution. The calibration graph was linear in the range of 0.5–20.0 ng mL^{− 1} and the limit of detection (3 s) was 0.18 ng mL^{− 1}, the limit of quantification (10 s) was 0.58 ng mL^{− 1}. The relative standard deviation (RSD) for 10 replicate measurements of 10 ng mL^{− 1} copper was 2.7%. The developed method was successfully applied to the extraction and determination of copper in different certified reference materials (Estuarine water, Slew 3 and fortified water, TM 23.2) and real water samples and satisfactory results were obtained.