Screening and Optimization of Microextraction of Pb(II) by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Atomic Emission Using Response Surface Methodology

Dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction (DLLME) combined with inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) was applied for the determination of lead in different environmental water samples. Ammonium pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (APDC), chloroform and ethanol were used as chelating agent, extraction solvent and disperser solvent, respectively. The effective parameters, such as volume of extraction and disperser solvents, sample volume, pH, salt effect, extraction time, centrifuge speed and amount of chelating agent were optimized with the aid of response surface methodology (RMS) and experimental design. Plackett-Burman design (PBD) was used to choose the significance variables for the optimization. The significant factors were optimized using a central composite design (CCD) then a quadratic model between the dependent and the independent variables was built. The proposed method showed good coincidence between the experimental data and predictive value, and it has been successfully employed to determine lead in environmental water samples. The limit of detection was 8 ngmL−1 and, repeatability of the method, described as relative standard deviation, was 5.7% (n = 5).