A simultaneous preconcentration method for cadmium, copper and nickel in samples of sediments and determination by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry was developed. The method is based on the extraction of the metals as complexes formed with 2-(5-bromo-2-pyridylazo)-5-(diethylamino)-phenol (5-Br-PADAP) at cloud point of the nonionic surfactant polyethylene glycol tert-octylphenyl ether (triton X-114). Optimization was performed using a Doehlert design and constrained mixture design. Desirability function was used to provide a simultaneous optimization of the evaluated responses. The developed method presented limits of quantification of 0.066, 0.149 and 0.191 µg g-1 and an enrichment factor of 18.4, 16.8 and 18.2 fold for cadmium, copper and nickel, respectively. The proposed method was applied in sediment samples collected in the urban stretch of the Contas River (Jequié, BA, Brazil). Adequate accuracy was found by analysis of two certified reference materials (NIST 1646a estuarine sediments and NIST 2702 marine sediment).
Keywords:
sediments; cloud point extraction; multivariate optimization; metals; ICP OES
