Vortex-assisted surfactant-enhanced-emulsification liquid-liquid microextraction with solidification of floating organic droplet combined with flame atomic absorption spectrometry for the fast determination of cadmium in water samples.

A novel vortex-assisted surfactant-enhanced-emulsification liquid–liquid microextraction with solidification of floating organic droplet (VSLLME-SFO) was developed for the fast, simple and efficient determination of cadmium (Cd) in water samples followed by flame atomic absorption spectrometry. In VSLLME-SFO process, the addition of surfactant (as an emulsifier), could enhance the mass-transfer from the aqueous solution into the extraction solvent. The extraction solvent could be dispersed into the aqueous under vigorously shaking with the vortex. In this paper, we investigated the influences of analytical parameters, including pH, extraction solvent type and its volume, surfactant type and its volume, concentration of chelating agent, salt effect and vortex time on the extraction efficiency of Cd were investigated. Under the optimized conditions, the limit of detection was 0.16 μg/L. The analyte enrichment factor was 37.68. The relative standard deviation was 3.2% (10 μg/L, n = 10) and the calibration graph was linear ranging from 0.5–30 μg/L. The proposed method was successfully applied for the analysis of ultra trace Cd in river water and wastewater samples.