Determination of Copper and Cadmium in Petroleum Produced Formation Water by Electrothermal Atomic Absorption Spectrometry after Cloud Point Extraction

Cloud point extraction (CPE) in association with graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GF AAS) was proposed for preconcentration and quantification of trace amounts of copper and cadmium in samples of saline produced formation water from petroleum exploration. The procedure was based on the formation of hydrophobic complexes of the analytes with 1.5-diphenylthiocarbazone (dithizone) in a micellar media of the surfactant (1,1,3,3-tetramethyl butyl) phenyl-polyethylene glycol (Triton X-114). Constrained mixture design was performed for the optimization of the proportions of the three solutions employed in the CPE: Triton X-114. dithizone, and buffer solution. Under the recommended conditions, the CPE GF AAS procedure allowed to obtain emichment factors of 18 and 11 times, limits of quantification of 0.030 and 0.12 mu g L-1 and precision, expressed as relative standard deviation (RSD, n = 8, 2.0 mu g L-1), of 1.1 and 4.3% for copper and cadmium, respectively. The CPE GF AAS method was applied to the determination of copper and cadmium in samples of saline produced formation water from petroleum exploration, and its accuracy was accessed by analyzing certified reference material CASS-5 (Nearshore Seawater Reference Material for Trace Metals) from National Research Council (Canada).