A sensitive and accurate analytical method for the determination of cadmium in food samples: Molybdenum coated T-shape slotted quartz tube flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry

•A sensitive T-SQT-AT-FAAS method was developed for cadmium determination.•High percent recoveries were obtained in linden, milk powder and mint samples.•1202 times enhancement in detection power was achieved compared to FAAS.•The method is cheap, easy to operate and green. In this study, a molybdenum coated T-shaped slotted quartz tube atom trap flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry method (Mo coated-T-SQT-AT-FAAS) was developed for the determination of cadmium with on-line preconcentration. Inner surface of T-SQT was coated with molybdenum to enhance the trapping efficiency. Hydrogen gas was used instead of organic solvents to release trapped atoms. Limit of detection and quantification were found to be 0.057 and 0.082 µg/L, respectively. The developed method has a linear working range between 0.10 and 1.0 µg/L with a low %RSD value (