Ultra-trace Extraction of Two Bactericides Via Ultrasound-Assisted Dispersive Liquid-Liquid Microextraction

Background A simple, rapid and sensitive method coupling ultrasound-assisted dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME) with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry was developed for the simultaneous determination of malachite green (MG) and crystal violet (CV) in different water samples. Objective In ultrasound-assisted DLLME procedure, several parameters affecting the extraction efficiency, including pH, type and volume of the extraction and dispersive solvents, extraction time, ionic strength, were optimized to improve the accuracy and precision of this method. Methods MG and CV were extracted and preconcentrated using dichloromethane and acetonitrile as the extraction and dispersive solvents, respectively. Results Under the optimum conditions, the proposed method affords good linearity in the range of 0.40–20.0 ng/L, and the limit of detections were 0.21 and 0.32 ng/L for MG and CV, respectively. The recoveries of the method at three spiked levels were in the range of 83.4–94.2% with relative standard deviations lower than 4.7% (n = 3). Conclusions Satisfactorily, no significant matrix effect has been found as the data ranged between 68% and 102%.