Introduction of Fullerene as a New Carrier in Electromembrane Extraction for the Determination of Ibuprofen and Sodium Diclofenac as Model Acidic Drugs in Real Urine Samples

Introducing new additives in supported liquid membrane (SLM) as carriers is an interesting and debatable issue in the field of microextraction methods, especially in electro membrane extraction (EME). In this study, C60 fullerene was used as a new carrier in the SLM, and EME followed by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with ultraviolet detection was optimized and validated for the quantification of ibuprofen and sodium diclofenac as two model acidic drugs. Optimized conditions for extraction of the mentioned drugs from 4.0 mL aqueous sample were obtained as follows: 1-octanol containing 0.6% (w/v) C60 fullerene as the SLM, potential difference of 6 V, 28 min as the extraction time, 12.8 as the acceptor phase pH value and 10.5 as the donor phase pH value. Under the optimized conditions, the enrichment factors were obtained within the range of 166-188, which corresponds to extraction recoveries of 83-94%. The limits of detection and quantification were in the range of 5-10 and 15-30 ng mL(-1), respectively. To understand the influence of C60 fullerene on extraction efficiency, a comparative study was carried out between conventional EME and modified EME methods. The results showed that the presence of C60 fullerene in the SLM increased the overall analyte partition coefficient in the membrane and, therefore, led to an enhancement in analyte transport. Finally, the applicability of this method was evaluated by the extraction and determination of these drugs in real urine samples.