Green Strategies in Trace Analysis: A Glimpse of Simple Alternatives for Sample Pretreatment and Analyte Determination

ABSTRACT

Researches in green chemistry have mainly been focused on new synthetic rotes, aiming diminution of side products, replacement of toxic solvents, and minimization of energy consumption. However, there is a clear demand to the development of greener analytical procedures and challenges are magnified when trace analysis is concerned. This overview is focused on environmentally friendly strategies for sample pretreatment and measurement aiming determination of species in low concentrations, including tungsten coil atomic spectrometry, long pathlength spectrophotometry, flow-based methodologies, and greener strategies for analyte extraction, exploiting either retention on solid supports or surfactant-mediated processes.

KEYWORDS:

• cloud-point extraction
• Green Analytical Chemistry
• long pathlength spectrophotometry
• solid-phase extraction
• tungsten coil atomic spectrometry

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors acknowledge the fellowships and financial support from the Brazilian agencies Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) and Fundaç[otilde]es de Amparo à Pesquisa dos Estados de São Paulo (FAPESP) e da Bahia (FAPESB).

Notes

^a Estimate per determination

^b Reagent consumption and waste volume cannot be estimated; LLE—liquid-liquid extraction; CPE—cloud point extraction; FIA—flow injection analysis; LPS—long pathlength spectrophotometry; SPE—solid-phase extraction; SPS—solid-phase spectrophotometry.

An invited paper submitted to a special issue on Green Spectroscopy and Analytical Techniques, organized by Professor Miguel de la Guardia, of the Department of Chemistry, University of Valencia, Spain, and Professor Arabinda Kumar Das, of the Department of Chemistry, University of Burdwan, West Bengal, India.