Choline chloride-oxalic acid as a deep eutectic solvent-based innovative digestion method for the determination of selenium and arsenic in fish samples

An innovative and effective digestion method based on choline chloride (ChCl)-oxalic acid (Ox) deep eutectic solvent (DES) was proposed for the determination of Se and As in fish samples via electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS). The impacts of different variables, including the composition and volume of ChCl-Ox, temperature, and acid addition, on analyte recovery were studied for optimization. In this procedure, an 80 mg sample was dissolved in a 1:2 molar ratio of ChCl-Ox at 105°C for 40 min, with the subsequent addition of 4.0 mL HNO₃ (1.0 M) and further heating at the same temperature for about 5 min. Next, centrifugation was applied, and the supernatant solution was filtered, diluted to a known volume, and measured by ETAAS. The accuracy of the developed method was tested using a Standard Reference Material (NIST SRM 1946 Lake Superior Fish Tissue). The proposed DES-based digestion method was successfully applied to the simultaneous extraction of Se and As from fish samples.