Optimization of two methods based on ultrasound energy as alternative to European standards for soluble salts extraction from building materials

The Italian recommendation NORMAL 13/83, later replaced by the UNI 11087/2003 norm, were used as standard for soluble salts extraction from construction materials. These standards are based on long-time stirring (72 and 2 h, respectively) of the sample in deionized water. In this work two ultrasound based methods were optimized in order to reduce the extraction time while efficiency is improved. The instrumental variables involved in the extraction assisted by ultrasound bath and focused ultrasounds were optimized by experimental design. As long as it was possible, the same non-instrumental parameters values as those of standard methods were used in order to compare the results obtained on a mortar sample showing a black crust by the standards and the optimized methods. The optimal extraction time for the ultrasounds bath was found to be of two hours. Although the extraction time was equal to the standard UNI 11087/2003, the obtained extraction recovery was improved up to 119%. The focused ultrasound system achieved also better recoveries (up to 106%) depending on the analyte in 1 h treatment time. The repeatabilities of the proposed ultrasound based methods were comparables to those of the standards. Therefore, the selection of one or the other of the ultrasound based methods will depend on topics such as laboratory facilities or number of samples, and not in aspects related with their quality parameters. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.