Switchable-hydrophilicity solvent liquid–liquid microextraction combined with smartphone digital image colorimetry for the determination of palladium in catalytic converters

Switchable-hydrophilicity solvent liquid-liquid microextraction was coupled with smartphone digital image colorimetry for the determination of palladium as its metal chelate with N,N-diethyl-N'-benzoylthiourea. Images of the colored extract were captured in a homemade colorimetric box, which were split into their red-green-blue channels. The blue channel was used to determine the concentration of palladium. Optimum extraction conditions were achieved using 600 μL of triethylamine as the extraction solvent and 4.0 mL of 10 M sodium hydroxide as the hydrophilicity-switching trigger within 1.0 min extraction time. Optimum complexation conditions were obtained at a sample pH of 4.50, and metal/ligand mole ratio of 1:2 within 3.0 min. Optimum detection conditions were achieved at a distance of 7.0 cm between the sample solution and the detection camera, a region of interest of 175.0 px2 at a detection wavelength of 480.0 nm and 30.0% brightness of the monochromatic light source. Limits of detection and quantitation were found to be less than 0.7 and 1.8 µg g-1, respectively. A good linearity with coefficients of determination above 0.9974 was obtained. Accuracy was checked via a single-factor analysis of variance (ANOVA) test by comparing the results with the ones obtained using flame-atomic absorption spectrometry and the results were statistically in a good agreement (P > 0.05). The proposed method was applied for the determination of palladium in catalytic converters with percentage relative recoveries ranging between 95.7 and 103.7% and percentage relative standard deviations below 4.0%.