“…Numerous substances have been applied as solid‐phase extractants, for example, modified silica ( Dogan and Koeklue, 2006 ; Hassanien and Abou‐El‐Sherbini, 2006 ; Tikhomirova et al, 1991 ; Tong and Yoshifumi, 1990 ) and alumina ( Ghaedi et al, 2006 ; Hu et al, 2006 ), active carbon ( Bertolino et al, 2006 ; Gil et al, 2006 ; Rama and Rama, 1990 ), and cellulose ( Gurnani et al, 2003 ; Metilda et al, 2003 ). Titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ), which possesses strong affinity toward metal cations ( Hlavay et al, 1984 ; Twidwell et al, 1999 ), has been widely used as an absorbent for trace elements analysis in the recent decade ( Balaji and Matsunaga, 2002 ; Dutta et al, 2004 ; Vassileva and Hadjiivanov, 1997 ).…”