Microfunnel magnetic stirring-assisted liquid–liquid microextraction method for determination of trace amounts of gold after optimization employing response surface methodology

ABSTRACT

A rapid, sensitive and simple technique was proposed for the preconcentration and determination of gold in the presence of N-methyl-N,N,N-trioctylammonium chloride (Aliquat 336) as ion pair forming agent employing microfunnel magnetic stirring-assisted liquid–liquid microextraction (MF-MSA-LLME) and flame atomic absorption spectrometry. Parameters were optimized by full factorial and Box-Behnken design. Under the optimum conditions, the calibration graph was linear in the range of 2.5–800.0 ng mL⁻¹ (r² = 0.998). Detection limit, enrichment factor and relative standard deviation were 0.6 ng mL⁻¹, 240.0 and 1.4% (n = 7, C = 100 ng mL⁻¹), respectively. This technique was successfully applied for the determination of gold in soil and water samples.

KEYWORDS:

• Gold
• microfunnel magnetic stirring-assisted liquid–liquid microextraction
• flame atomic absorption spectrometry
• response surface methodology
• soil and water samples