Determination of trace silver in water, wastewater and ore samples using dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction coupled with flame atomic absorption spectrometry

•A fast and reliable dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction method coupled with FAAS is proposed for the sensitive determination of silver.•2-Mercaptobenzimidazol was selected as a complexing agent in organic phase.•Proposed DLLME method is sensitive, ease of operation and consuming small amounts of reagent and solvents.•Limit of detection of the present method is better than reported techniques for preconcentration of silver using FAAS.•The method was applied to determine silver in water, radiology solution and ore samples.

A fast and reliable dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction (DLLME) method for the determination of trace levels of silver by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS) was developed. The method is based on highly-efficient separation and preconcentration of silver by the complex formation of Ag(I) with 2-mercaptobenzimidazole and extracted by DLLME procedure using carbon tetrachloride as extraction and acetone as disperser solvent. After establishment of a cloudy solution, the phase separation is achieved and Ag(I) is determined in the enriched phase by FAAS. The method yields a linear calibration curve in the concentration range of 1–100 ng mL−1 of Ag(I), and the limit of detection is 0.41 ng mL−1. The proposed method was successfully applied to determine the trace amounts of silver in water, radiology film processing wastewater and ore samples.

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