Optimisation of ultrasound-assisted reverse micelles dispersive liquid-liquid micro-extraction by Box-Behnken design for determination of acetoin in butter followed by high performance liquid chromatography

A novel approach, ultrasound-assisted reverse micelles dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (USA-RM-DLLME) followed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was developed for selective determination of acetoin in butter. The melted butter sample was diluted and homogenised by n-hexane and Triton X-100, respectively. Subsequently, 400 μL of distilled water was added and the microextraction was accelerated by 4 min sonication. After 8.5 min of centrifugation, sedimented phase (surfactant-rich phase) was withdrawn by microsyringe and injected into the HPLC system for analysis. The influence of effective variables was optimised using Box-Behnken design (BBD) combined with desirability function (DF). Under optimised experimental conditions, the calibration graph was linear over the range of 0.6-200 mg L−1. The detection limit of method was 0.2 mg L−1 and coefficient of determination was 0.9992. The relative standard deviations (RSDs) were less than 5% (n = 5) while the recoveries were in the range of 93.9-107.8%.