Quantification of TiO₂ and ZnO nanoparticles in wastewater using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry

The applicability of inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry has been examined for determination titanium dioxide and zinc oxide nanoparticles in industrial wastewater samples. The extraction and preconcentration of the nanoparticles were achieved using ligandless ultrasound-assisted surfactant-based dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction. Under optimized conditions, the developed method had limits of detection (LOD) of 2.7 ng L⁻¹ for Ti and 3.6 ng L⁻¹ for Zn resulting from dissolved TiO₂ and ZnO nanoparticles. The relative standard deviation values for intraday precision were 2.5% and 3.1% for TiO₂ and ZnO, while the interday precision was 4.5% and 5.0%. Percentage recoveries ranging from 98% to 100% were obtained. Finally, the applicability of the method was examined by analyzing spiked samples and wastewater samples collected from textile, cosmetic and paint industries.