Ultrasound-Assisted Ion-Pair Dispersive Liquid-Liquid Microextraction of Trace Amounts of Lead in Water Samples Prior to Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrometry Determination

A new ion-pair dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction method is described for separation and preconcentration of trace amounts of lead in different water samples. Graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry was used for determination of lead. The ion association complex between lead and iodide ions that forms is PbI4-2-tetradecyl-dimethylbenzylammonium, which is extracted into fine droplets of chlorobenzene. In order to reach the optimized experimental conditions, the influence of different parameters, such as concentration of KI, nature and volume of extraction solvents, pH effect, extraction time, and the period and speed of sonication and centrifugation, were optimized. The LOD was 0.08 ng/mL and the linear dynamic range was 0.20-8.0 ng/mL in initial solution with a correlation coefficient of 0.9985. Under the optimum conditions, the enrichment factor was 555.5. The proposed method was successfully applied for separation and determination of lead in sea, rain, river, and drinking water samples.