Microextraction with smartphone detection of thiocyanate in saliva of tobacco smokers using paper‐based analytical method

Abstract

This study presents a novel, cost‐effective approach involving spectrophotometric and smartphone paper‐based (SPB) methods and a distinctive salting‐out air‐assisted dispersive microextraction procedure to quantify thiocyanate in saliva samples. The method relies on the inhibitory effect of thiocyanate on quinoneimine dye formation during the Emerson reaction with sodium hypochlorite. Spectrophotometry quantifies the extracted dye by monitoring quinoneimine color intensity reduction at 525 nm. In the SPB method, extracted dye is applied to a paper strip, a smartphone captures the colored paper, and an application analyzes red, green, and blue components. All analyte determination and extraction variables were explored. Both methods exhibit good linearity (10–100 μg/L) with a coefficient of determination of 0.9991 and a limit of detection of 7.5 μg/L for the spectrophotometric method, and a coefficient of determination of 0.9988 and a limit of detection of 8.8 μg/L for the SPB method. The calculated values for the enrichment factor and extraction recovery of the developed extraction methodology were 46% and 93%, respectively. The methods detect thiocyanate in saliva samples, producing results comparable to a validated method.