Continuous ultrasound-assisted extraction of iron from mussel samples coupled to a flow injection-atomic spectrometric system

Abstract

Iron was extracted on-line from solid mussel samples by a simple continuous ultrasound-assisted extraction system (CUES) connected to a flow injection manifold, followed by on-line flame atomic absorption spectrometric determination. An experimental design was used for the optimisation of the CUES. The method allowed a total sampling frequency of 11 samples per hour, with a relative standard deviation for the complete procedure of 0.5% [for a sample containing 217.3 µg g⁻¹ iron (dry mass)]. The detection limit was 0.7 µg g⁻¹ (dry mass) for a sample amount of 30 mg. Accurate results were obtained by measuring TORT-1 certified reference material. The results demonstrated that this method was simple, quantitative and sufficiently sensitive for iron determination in mussel samples.