Development of a robust ionic liquid-based dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction against high concentration of salt for preconcentration of trace metals in saline aqueous samples: Application to the determination of Pb and Cd

A new ionic liquid-based dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction method was developed for preconcentration and determination of compounds in aqueous samples containing very high salt concentrations. This method can solve the problems associated with the limited application of the conventional IL-based DLLME in these samples. This is believed to arise from dissolving of the ionic liquids in aqueous samples with high salt content. In this method, the robustness of microextraction system against high salt concentration (up to 40%, w/v) is increased by introducing a common ion of the ionic liquid into the sample solution. The proposed method was applied satisfactorily to the preconcentration of lead and cadmium in saline samples. After preconcentration, the settled IL-phase was dissolved in 100 μL ethanol and aspirated into the flame atomic absorption spectrometer (FAAS) using a home-made microsample introduction system. Several variables affecting the microextraction efficiency were investigated and optimized. Under the optimized conditions and preconcentration of only 10 mL of sample, the enhancement factors of 273 and 311 and the detection limits of 0.6 μg L −1 and 0.03 μg L −1 were obtained for lead and cadmium, respectively. Validation of the method was performed by both an analysis of a certified reference material (CRM) and comparison of results with those obtained by ISO standard method.