Development of ultrasound-assisted emulsification microextraction for determination of thiocynate ion in human urine and saliva samples.

Ultrasound-assisted emulsification microextraction (USAE-ME) procedure coupled with UV-vis spectrophotometric measurement has been developed for determination of thiocyanate ion (SCN(-)) in water and biological fluids samples. The method is based on protonation of SCN(-) ions in acidic medium and extraction of thiocyanic acid into fine droplets of chloroform as an extraction solvent contains rhodamine B (RhB). The RhB was protonated in presence of thiocynanic acid to form highly colored ion-pair complex of [thiocynate][RhBH(+)] in chloroform, which used for subsequent spectrophotometric determination of SCN(-) ions. Experimental parameters for both spectrophotometric reaction and USAE-ME procedure have been optimized. Under optimized conditions the calibration curve for SCN(-) showed good linearity in the range of 38.0-870.0ngmL(-1) (R(2)=0.9967). The limit of detection (S/N=3) and preconcentration factor were 5.0ngmL(-1) and 40, respectively. Relative standard deviation for determination of 200ngmL(-1) of SCN(-) was 2.8% (n=5). The proposed method has been successfully applied for determination of SCN(-) ion in tap water, mineral bottled water and human saliva and urine samples with an average recovery of 99.2%.