Ionic Liquid-Based Vortex-Assisted Liquid–Liquid Microextraction for Simultaneous Determination of Neonicotinoid Insecticides in Fruit Juice Samples

A simple, rapid, and effective method was developed for preconcentration of neonicotinoid insecticides including clothianidin, imidacloprid, acetamiprid, and thiacloprid in fruit juice samples. Room-temperature ionic liquids [C4MIM][PF6] can be used as green extractant phases in vortex-assisted liquid–liquid microextraction (VALLME), being compatible with high-performance liquid chromatographic systems. The effect of extraction parameters, including the addition of salt, volume of (C4MIM)(PF6), vortex time, and centrifugation time is identified as the key parameters of the method. Under the selected conditions, the high enrichment factors of 100 could be achieved with the limit of detection in the range of 0.25–0.30 ng mL−1 and with the relative standard deviations of lower than 2.68 and 5.38 % for retention time and peak area, respectively. The proposed method was applied to the analysis of fruit juice samples, and the recoveries of the analytes ranged from 95 to 108 % and relative standard deviations were lower than 7 %. The developed method proposes advantages in reduction of the exposure danger to toxic organic solvents used in the conventional liquid–liquid extraction, simplicity of the extraction processes, rapidity, and sensitivity improvement.