Determination of Cadmium in Mineral Water Samples by Slotted Quartz Tube-Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrometry After Peristaltic Pump Assisted Silica Nanoparticle Based Pipette Tip Solid Phase Extraction

Abstract

This study presents an analytical strategy named silica nanoparticles (Si-NP) based pipette tip solid phase extraction (PT-SPE) method for the trace level determination of cadmium in mineral water samples. Slotted quartz tube flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry (SQT-FAAS) was used to determine the cadmium analyte. Si-NPs synthesized from rice husk were used to preconcentrate/extract the cadmium ions. Adsorbent properties of Si-NPs were examined by SEM analysis and the size of nanoparticles was found in nanoscale. The extraction/preconcentration and phase separation steps are carried out simultaneously which greatly reduces the extraction time by eliminating the need for centrifugation step before phase separation. The effect of all experimental parameters on the efficiency of the developed method was examined and optimized utilizing univariate optimization strategy. The linear calibration graph of the developed method showed a good linearity between 0.60 and 20 mu g/L and the limit of detection was calculated as 0.16 mu g/L. The presented method showed an approximately 194-fold enhancement in detection power compared to traditional FAAS. The developed method's applicability to real samples was validated through spiking experiments in mineral water samples using the matrix matching strategy. The percent recoveries calculated were ranged between 92 and 98% with RSD values lower than 10%, confirming the applicability of the developed method for the precise determination of cadmium in mineral water samples. The developed method offers a simple and rapid extraction/preconcentration of the target analyte from the aqueous sample solution.