Density-adjusted liquid-phase microextraction with smartphone digital image colorimetry to determine parathion-methyl in water, fruit juice, vinegar, and fermented liquor

Abstract

To achieve rapid and convenient on-site pretreatment and determination of parathion-methyl, a density-adjusted liquid-phase microextraction with smartphone digital image colorimetry was established to detect parathion-methyl in food samples. In this study, the environmentally friendly biomass-derived solvent guaiacol was used as the extractant. Salt and water, as density regulators, realized the two movements (floating–sinking) of the extractant and full contact between the extractant and the sample solution to establish an environmentally friendly, fast, and efficient pretreatment method. Under strong alkaline conditions, parathion-methyl generated a yellow product; then, a smartphone was used to obtain the image of the yellow product for intensity analysis. Parathion-methyl has a good linear relationship in the range of 0.01–1 mg L⁻¹, and the limits of detection and quantification are 0.003 and 0.01 mg L⁻¹, respectively. This method has been successfully applied to the determination of parathion-methyl in spiked water, fruit juice, vinegar, and fermented liquor with a recovery of 91.6–106.5% and a relative standard deviation of 0.6–6.0%. The established density-adjusted liquid phase microextraction with smartphone digital image colorimetry is rapid, convenient, and environmentally friendly for the determination of parathion-methyl in food samples.