Monitoring of antifungal drugs in biological samples using ultrasonic-assisted supramolecular dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction based on solidification of a floating organic droplet

• A supramolecular solvent based on solidification of an organic droplet was proposed.
• Reversed micelles of 1-dodecanol in tetrahydrofuran extracted the antifungal drugs.
• Sonication accelerated mass transfer of the drugs into supramolecular solvent.
• This method was applied in analysis of biological and water samples.

A new method for the simultaneous determination of the three antifungal drugs using ultrasonic-assisted supramolecular dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction based on solidification of a floating organic droplet (UASMDLLME-SFO) was proposed. The supramolecular solvents produced from reversed micelles of 1-dodecanol (extraction solvent) in tetrahydrofuran (THF) were injected into the aqueous sample solution. Reverse micelle coacervates were produced in situ through self-assembly processes. The antifungal drugs were extracted from the aqueous sample into a supramolecular solvent. Sonication accelerated the mass transfer of the target analytes into the supramolecular solvent phase and enhanced the dispersion process. Some parameters affecting the extraction efficiency such as type and volume of the extraction solvent, pH, volume of the disperser solvent and ultrasound extraction time were investigated. Under optimum conditions, the limits of detections for ketoconazole, clotrimazole and miconazole ranged from 0.08 to 1.3 μgL−1 and the relative standard deviations (RSDs, n = 5) < 6% were obtained. The method was successfully applied for preconcentration of the three drugs in biological and water samples.