Preconcentration of lead using solidification of floating organic drop and its determination by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry

A simple microextraction method based on solidification of a floating organic drop (SFOD) was developed for preconcentration of lead prior to its determination by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS). Ammonium pyrolidinedithiocarbamate (APDC) was used as complexing agent, and the formed complex was extracted into a 20 μL of 1-undecanol. The extracted complex was diluted with ethanol and injected into a graphite furnace. An orthogonal array design (OAD) with OA(16) (4(5)) matrix was employed to study the effects of different parameters such as pH, APDC concentration, stirring rate, sample solution temperature and the exposure time on the extraction efficiency. Under the optimized experimental conditions the limit of detection (based on 3 s) and the enhancement factor were 0.058 μg L(−1) and 113, respectively. The relative standard deviation (RSD) for 8 replicate determinations of 1 μg L(−1) of Pb was 8.8%. The developed method was validated by the analysis of certified reference materials and was successfully applied to the determination of lead in water and infant formula base powder samples.