Uranium monitoring tool for rapid analysis of environmental samples based on automated liquid-liquid microextraction

• A fully automated, portable and fast monitor for uranium(VI) was developed.
• Liq-liq microextraction with cyanex-272 prior spectrophotometric detection was used.
• System drastically reduces the reagents, contributing to reduce the environmental impact.
• Main traits are selectivity, low operational and instrumentation costs and robustness.
• The proposed monitor can be used as a powerful tool especially in times of emergency.

A fully automated in-syringe (IS) magnetic stirring assisted (MSA) liquid-liquid microextraction (LLME) method for uranium(VI) determination was developed, exploiting a long path-length liquid waveguide capillary cell (LWCC) with spectrophotometric detection. On-line extraction of uranium was performed within a glass syringe containing a magnetic stirrer for homogenization of the sample and the successive reagents: cyanex-272 in dodecane as extractant, EDTA as interference eliminator, hydrochloric acid to make the back-extraction of U(VI) and arsenazo-III as chromogenic reagent to accomplish the spectrophotometric detection at 655 nm. Magnetic stirring assistance was performed by a specially designed driving device placed around the syringe body creating a rotating magnetic field in the syringe, and forcing the rotation of the stirring bar located inside the syringe.The detection limit (LOD) of the developed method is 3.2 µg L−1. Its good interday precision (Relative Standard Deviation, RSD 3.3%), and its high extraction frequency (up to 6 h−1) makes of this method an inexpensive and fast screening tool for monitoring uranium(VI) in environmental samples. It was successfully applied to different environmental matrices: channel sediment certified reference material (BCR-320R), soil and phosphogypsum reference materials, and natural water samples, with recoveries close to 100%.

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