Comparison of ultrasound-assisted cloud point extraction and ultrasound-assisted dispersive liquid liquid microextraction for copper coupled with spectrophotometric determination.

In this work, ultrasound-assisted cloud point extraction (UA-CPE) and ultrasound-assisted dispersive liquid liquid microextraction (UA-DLLME) were investigated and compared firstly as ultrasound-assisted liquid phase microextraction methods, which were coupled with spectrophotometer for copper preconcentration and detection. Compared to conventional CPE and DLLME, the extraction patterns were changed and improved by the effect of ultrasound. As novel methods, their applications were expanded and the analytical performance of spectrophotometric determination for copper was considerably improved. The influence factors of UA-CPE and UA-DLLME were studied in detail. Under the optimal conditions, the limits of detection (LODs) for copper were 0.7 μg L(-1) of UA-CPE and 0.8 μg L(-1) of UA-DLLME with sensitivity enhancement factors (EFs) of 17 and 16. The developed methods were applied to the determination of trace copper in real water samples with satisfactory analytical results.