Analytical approaches for the determination of cobalt, nickel and copper by aeration-assisted homogeneous liquid–liquid microextraction and flame atomic absorption spectrometry

ABSTRACT

A new aeration-assisted homogeneous liquid–liquid microextraction using high-density solvent for determination of copper, nickel and cobalt, as a prior step to their determination, coupled to flame atomic absorption spectrometry is presented. Under the optimum conditions, the calibration graphs were linear in the range of 5.0–600.0 ng/mL for copper, 10.0–450.0 ng/mL for nickel and 8.0–500.0 ng/mL for cobalt. The limits of detection were 1.3, 3.6 and 2.7 ng/mL and the enrichment factor estimated to be 350, 340 and 360, for copper, nickel and cobalt, respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied for the determination of these cations in different samples.

KEYWORDS:

• Homogeneous liquid–liquid microextraction
• flame atomic absorption spectrometry
• nickel
• cobalt
• copper