Ultrasonic-assisted liquid-liquid microextraction linked deep eutectic solvent for determination of lead using flame atomic absorption spectrometry in water and soil samples

One of the most important environmental challenges is heavy metals contamination of soil and water sources. Lead is one of the toxic heavy metals and its accumulation in human body even in trace levels leads to serious diseases and disorders such as respiratory and digestive problems, cancer, and cardiovascular failure [1]. Different analytical techniques have been reported for separation/preconcentration of lead. Among them liquid-liquid microextraction techniques have been in the centre of attention due to the short extraction time, low amount of extraction solvent [2]. Green solvents such as deep eutectic solvents are widely applied in recent years. In this study, choline chloride-Urea deep eutectic solvent was synthetized. To this aim, choline chloride and Urea with the mole ratio of (1:2.5) were stirred at 100 °C for 60 min. The synthetized DES was used for extraction of trace amount of lead using Ultrasonic-assisted liquid-liquid microextraction and determined with flame atomic absorption spectrometry. Linearrange of 25-500 μg L-1 was achieved. The detection and quantification limits were12.8 and 34.2 μg L-1. The proposed method was successfully applied in water and soil samples.