Sensitive determination of cadmium in water, beverage and cereal samples by a novel liquid-phase microextraction coupled with flame atomic absorption spectrometry

A new microextraction technique termed dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction based on solidification of floating organic droplet (DLLME-SFO) coupled with flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS) has been developed for the determination of trace cadmium in water, beverage and cereal samples. In the DLLME-SFO, cadmium was first complexed with 8-hydroxyquinoline, and then extracted into a small volume of the extraction solvent (1-dodecanol) with methanol as a dispersive solvent. Then, the extractant was analyzed by FAAS. The main factors affecting the DLLME-SFO, such as the type and volume of the extraction solvent and dispersive solvent, extraction time, sample volume, the amount of chelating agent, and salt addition were optimized. Under the optimum conditions, the established method showed a good linearity within a range of 1–50 ng mL−1, high enhancement factor (133), low limit of detection (0.3 ng mL−1), satisfactory repeatabilities (the relative standard deviation (RSD) = 3.7%, n = 6), and high recoveries (from 91.8 to 104.4%). The method was applied to determine the cadmium in three different samples (water, beverage and cereal samples) and two certified reference materials. The results indicated that the method can be applied for the determination of trace cadmium in real samples with complex matrices.