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Metal ions were preconcentrated from water samples using supported liquid membranes containing 40% w/w di-2-ethylhexyl phosphoric acid (DEHPA) dissolved in kerosene as the membrane liquid. The driving force for the mass transport of analytes in this system is the pH gradient across the membrane. The effect of the carrier concentration on the extraction efficiency was studied. The mechanism for the mass transport in the system was investigated by measuring changes in pH and analyte ion concentration as well as changes in the concentration of other interfering metal ions present in large excess during the enrichment. The extraction efficiency was found to be unchanged as long as the pH difference across the membrane was more than 2 pH units. The long-term stability of the system was investigated at different pHs in the donor solution. Under optimal conditions, the membrane was stable for at least 200 h with reagent water samples and at least 80 h for river water samples. Enrichment factors of approximately 15 times could be obtained. The corresponding extraction efficiencies were over 80% for some of the investigated metal ions. The detection limits of blank samples for Cu2+, Cd2+ and Pb2+ using 120 min processing time were 0.19, 0.024 and 0.09 ng/mL, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]