Rapid spectrophotometric determination of trace amounts of palladium in water samples after dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction Reyhaneh Rahnama Kozani & Jamshid Mofid-Nakhaei & Mohammad Reza Jamali Received: 28 March 2012 / Accepted: 4 December 2012 / Published online: 16 December 2012 # Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2012 Abstract A simple, rapid, and efficient dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction method, followed by UV–Vis spectrophotometry was developed for the preconcentration and determination of Pd ions in wa- ter samples. Pd ions react with α-furildioxime (chelat- ing agent) to form a hydrophobic complex. Various parameters were altered to study and optimize their effects on the extraction efficiency, such as pH, ligand concentration, the type and volume of extraction and dispersive solvents, extraction time, and salt concen- tration. Under optimized conditions, the method exhibited an enrichment factor (C org /C aq ) of 25 and recovery more than 98 % within a very short extrac- tion time. The linearity of the method ranged from 10 to 200 μgL -1 . The limit of detection was 1.1 μgL -1 . The relative standard deviation for the concentration of 100 μgL -1 of Pd was 2.3 % (n =10). Finally, the developed method was successfully applied to the extraction and determination of Pd in tap, river, min- eral, and sea water samples. Keywords Pd . Dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction . Spectrophotometry . Water samples Introduction Pd is one of the most widely used of the six platinum group metals. It has been used in different areas of science and technology, including brazing alloys, pe- troleum, electrical industries, and catalysis of chemical reactions (Kezler and Iberts 1983; Machida et al. 1987). The metal may enter the environment and interact with complexing materials, such as humic substances (Hees et al. 1998). Pd has no biological role, and all Pd compounds are highly toxic and po- tentially carcinogenic (Kielhorn et al. 2002). Thus, due to the increasing use and toxicity of Pd(II) compounds (Lee 1980), the determination of Pd is of great interest in environmental analysis. The complexity of matrix interferences and low con- centration levels of Pd in some industrial products (in microgram per gram) and environmental samples (in nanogram per gram) make the direct measurement of this metal difficult. Therefore, the application of highly sensitive techniques, such as ICP-AES (Kovacheva and Djingova 2002; Wu et al. 2002), ICP-MS (Jarvis et al. 1997; Gaita and Al-Bazi 1995; Enzweiler et al. 1995) and GF-AAS (Moldovan et al. 2003), coupled with a separation/preconcentration procedure is necessary. Separation and preconcentration procedures have been developed for Pd in several matrices prior to Pd mea- surement. Extraction methods based on liquid–liquid extraction (Qu 1996; Al-Bazi and Chow 1984; Environ Monit Assess (2013) 185:6531–6537 DOI 10.1007/s10661-012-3044-8 R. Rahnama Kozani (*) : J. Mofid-Nakhaei : M. R. Jamali Department of Chemistry, Payame Noor Universtiy, PO Box 19395-3697, Tehran, Iran e-mail: r_rahnama@ymail.com