Ultrasound-assisted emulsification–microextraction combined with flame atomic absorption spectrometry for determination of trace cadmium in water samples

The process of ultrasound-assisted emulsification–microextraction (USAEME) was successfully applied for the first time for the extraction and pre-concentration of trace cadmium from water samples, followed by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS). In the proposed approach, sodium diethyldithiocarbamate trihydrate solution (NaDDTC·3H2O) was used as a chelating agent and carbon tetrachloride was selected as extraction solvent. Some effective parameters on the microextraction and the complex formation were selected and optimized. These parameters included extraction solvent type as well as extraction volume, time, temperature, and pH, the amount of the chelating agent, and salt effect. Under optimum conditions, an enrichment factor of 95 was obtained from only 5.0 mL of water sample. The calibration graph was linear in the range of 10–600 μg L−1 with a detection limit of 0.91 μg L−1. The relative standard deviation (R.S.D) for ten replicate measurements of 50 and 500 μg L−1 of cadmium were 2.56 and 1.62%. This proposed method was successfully applied in the analysis of four real environmental water samples and good spiked recoveries over the range of 96.5–101.7% were obtained.