Spectrophotometric determination of low levels arsenic species in beverages after ion-pairing vortex-assisted cloud-point extraction with acridine red

Abstract

A new, low-cost, micellar-sensitive and selective spectrophotometric method was developed for the determination of inorganic arsenic (As) species in beverage samples. Vortex-assisted cloud-point extraction (VA-CPE) was used for the efficient pre-concentration of As(V) in the selected samples. The method is based on selective and sensitive ion-pairing of As(V) with acridine red (ARH+) in the presence of pyrogallol and sequential extraction into the micellar phase of Triton X-45 at pH 6.0. Under the optimised conditions, the calibration curve was highly linear in the range of 0.8–280 µg l?1 for As(V). The limits of detection and quantification of the method were 0.25 and 0.83 µg l?1, respectively. The method was successfully applied to the determination of trace As in the pre-treated and digested samples under microwave and ultrasonic power. As(V) and total As levels in the samples were spectrophotometrically determined after pre-concentration with VA-CPE at 494 nm before and after oxidation with acidic KMnO4. The As(III) levels were calculated from the difference between As(V) and total As levels. The accuracy of the method was demonstrated by analysis of two certified reference materials (CRMs) where the measured values for As were statistically within the 95% confidence limit for the certified values. © 2016 The Author(s). Published by Taylor & Francis.