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

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, and the limits of detection and quantification are 0.003 and 0.01 mg L, 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.