Vortex-assisted surfactant-enhanced emulsification microextraction based on solidification of floating organic drop followed by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry for speciation of antimony (ΙΙΙ, V)

Vortex-assisted surfactant-enhanced emulsification microextraction based on solidification of floating organic drop (VASEME-SFO) was used for preconcentration and speciation of antimony (ΙΙΙ, V) followed by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS). In this procedure, Triton X-114 was used as emulsifier and 1-undecanol was used as extraction solvent. This method is based on the complexation of Sb(ΙΙΙ) with dithizone (as complexing agent) at pH 2 and extraction of the resulting hydrophobic complex into the extraction solvent (1-undecanol) with vortex-assisted liquid phase microextraction, whereas Sb(V) remained in solution. Sb(ΙΙΙ) in extraction solvent was directly analyzed by ETAAS after dilution with ethanol, and Sb(V) was calculated by subtracting Sb(ΙΙΙ) from the total antimony after reducing Sb(V) to Sb(ΙΙΙ) by L-cysteine. Under the optimized condition, the calibration curve was linear in the range of 0.4–8 μg L⁻¹of Sb(ΙΙΙ) with a correlation coefficient of 0.9995. The detection limit based on three times of the standard deviation of the blank (n = 8) was 0.09 μg L⁻¹. The validation and the recovery of the proposed method were performed by the analysis of a certified reference material and spike method. The obtained results were in very good agreements with certified values. The proposed method was successfully applied for the determination of antimony species at trace levels in different water samples.