SPE – Microwave‐assisted extraction coupled system for the extraction of pesticides from water samples

SPE is a commonly applied technique for preconcentration of pesticides from water samples. Microwave‐assisted extraction (MAE) technique is the extraction applied for preconcentration of different compounds from solid samples. SPE coupled with MAE is capable of preconcentrating these compounds from water samples too. This investigation was aimed at improving the efficiency of atrazine, alachlor, and α‐cypermethrin pesticide extraction from the spiked water samples applying SPE followed by MAE. In this way, MAE served for elution of pesticides from C₁₈‐extraction disks with solvent heated by microwave energy. Various elution conditions were tested for their effects on the extraction efficiency of the SPE–MAE combined technique. Several parameters, such as elution solvent volume (mL), elution temperature (°C), and duration of elution (min), affect the extraction efficiency of the SPE–MAE coupled system and need to be optimized for the selected pesticides. In order to develop a mathematical model, 15 experiments were performed in the central composite design. The equation was then used to predict recoveries of the pesticides under specific experimental conditions. Optimization of microwave extraction was accomplished using the genetic algorithm approach. Best results were achieved using 20 mL of ethanol at 60°C. Optimal hold time was 5 min and 24 s. The SPE–MAE combination was also compared with the conventional SPE extraction technique with elution of a nonpolar or a moderately polar compound with nonpolar solvents.     

Application of an ampholine‐functionalized hybrid organic–inorganic silica material for the SPE of aromatic amines

An SPE cartridge based on an ampholine‐functionalized hybrid organic–inorganic silica sorbent has been adopted for the analysis of aromatic amines including 4‐aminobiphenyl, benzidine, 2‐naphthylamine, p‐chloroaniline, 2,4,5‐trimethylaniline, and 3,3′‐dichlorobenzidine. Crucial variables governing the extraction efficiency of the material such as the pH of sample, sample loading volume, solvent used for elution, and elution volume have been thoroughly optimized. The adsorption capacities for the six aromatic amines ranged from 0.17 to 1.82 μg/mg. The recoveries of aromatic amines spiked in textile samples ranged from 78.9 to 103.0%, with RSDs of 1.1–11.9% (n = 3). Moreover, the extraction efficiency of the ampholine‐functionalized hybrid organic–inorganic silica sorbent was at least comparable with that of Oasis WCX.     

无筛板型固相萃取柱的制备及其在食品中苯甲酸的测定研究

结合固相萃取(SPE)盘与含支撑物的SPE柱技术,制备了一种新型的无筛板型固相萃取柱.以C18填料为例,以话梅样品为介质对其中的苯甲酸进行分析,并用传统固相萃取小柱平行比较;将SPE与HPLC-UV结合,考察了填料对简单介质中苯甲酸的最大吸附量及洗脱曲线,研究了新型SPE柱在实际应用中的分离纯化效果.结果表明,新型SPE柱对样品的吸附效果更好,规格为200 mg/3 mL的SPE柱对苯甲酸的吸附量达到0.951 mg,超过了传统柱的吸附量0.908 mg;其洗脱曲线与传统柱几乎重合;苯甲酸在1～100 mg/L浓度范围内线性关系良好, r=0.9999,用此SPE柱纯化后的样品加标回收率和相对误差分别在88.4%～102.3%和1.4%～2.9%之间.     

用固相萃取技术富集水中多环芳烃

系统地研究了淋洗剂强度、用量和有机改性剂的加入对固相萃取水中多环芳烃回收率的影响。研究表明,二氯甲烷和苯的洗脱效果较好,回收率为８７％～１０２％;当淋洗剂的用量超过１．５ｍＬ时,对多环芳烃的回收率没有明显的影响;向自来水样中加入２０％有机改性剂可明显改善多环芳烃的回收效果,使回收率达到８９％～１０８％。     

Rapid narrow band elution for on-line SPE using a novel solvent plug injection technique

Determination of trace constituents in biological and environmental samples usually requires a pre-concentration step. While solid-phase extraction (SPE) has been widely used, it is slow, labor intensive and adversely affected by analytical errors from handling. On-line SPE eliminates some of the flaws but often suffers from solvent compatibility problems with the subsequent chromatography separation. In this study, we are presenting a technical solution for overcoming some of these compatibility issues, by utilizing a fully automated, focused SPE sample transfer technique utilizing narrow-band solvent plugs, for seamless hyphenation with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) or flow injection mass spectrometry (MS). A wide range of pharmaceutical compounds was studied in different sample matrices. Short plugs of high elution strength solvent were generated by means of an electrically actuated sample loop and enrichment and transfer steps monitored using on-line SPE-MS. The impact of the solvent plugs on chromatographic separation was studied using hyphenated SPE-LC-MS. By carefully examining elution profiles of solvent plugs of different compositions, optimum conditions for quantitative elution within well-defined volumes were found for all substances. In addition, the highly focused elution bands resulted in excellent retention time and peak area reproducibilities when injected on-line onto HPLC columns. Finally, to demonstrate proof-of-principle, the fully integrated on-line SPE-LC-MS system was applied to the analysis of spiked urine and river water samples.     

Separation of antidepressants by capillary electrophoresis with in-line solid-phase extraction using a novel monolithic adsorbent

The separation of three selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) by capillary electrophoresis (CE) with fully integrated solid-phase extraction (SPE) is described. Polymeric monolithic SPE modules were prepared in situ within a fused silica capillary from either butyl methacrylate-co-ethylene dimethacrylate or 3-sulfopropyl methacrylate-co-butyl methacrylate-co-ethylene dimethacrylate. Using a 1 cm SPE module placed at the inlet of the capillary, a mixture of sertraline, fluoxetine and fluvoxamine was extracted from aqueous solution by applying a simple pressure rinse. Under pressure-driven conditions, efficient elution was possible from both SPE materials investigated using 50 mM phosphate buffer, pH 3.5 in acetonitrile (20/80, v/v). Two different strategies were investigated for the efficient elution and subsequent CE separation. Injection of an aqueous sample plug directly into the non-aqueous elution/separation buffer was found to be unsuitable with poor elution profiles observed in the electrodriven mode. Alternatively, a sample plug equivalent to several capillary volumes could be injected by pressure followed by filling the capillary with the non-aqueous elution/separation buffer from the outlet end using a combination of pressure and electrodriven flow. Using a neutral monolith, efficient elution/separation was not possible due to an unstable electroosmotic flow (EOF), however, by adding the ionisable monomer, 3-sulfopropyl methacrylate to the SPE module to increase and stabilise the EOF, it was possible to achieve efficient elution from the SPE module, followed by baseline separation by CE using a 200 mM acetate buffer, pH 3.5 in acetonitrile (10/90, v/v). With enrichment factors of over 500 achieved for each of the analytes this demonstrates the potential of in-line SPE-CE for the sensitive analysis of these drugs.     

Solid-phase extraction of carotenoids

In this work, solid-phase extraction (SPE) trapping performance of lutein and β-carotene, which were used as the model molecules of carotenoids, was investigated. The absorption, elution, and enrichment of carotenoids on SPE cartridges with four different sorbents, i.e. C₃₀, C₁₈, diol, and silica, were compared respectively with the help of frontal analysis technique. The high retentions of both lutein and β-carotene were achieved on the C₁₈ and C₃₀ cartridges. The diol and silica cartridges only had good retention for lutein. The optimized SPE method for sample pretreatment for the carotenoids analysis was obtained after the investigation of trapping performance. The method was applied successfully to the analysis of biological sample, i.e. serum and human breast milk. The recovery, accuracy, and precision of SPE method comparing with those of traditional liquid–liquid extraction (LLE) method for the sample pretreatment for the analysis of carotenoids owned a number of advantages such as rapid, no chloroform used, and accurate versus LLE.     

Comparison of different extraction methods for the determination of statin drugs in wastewater and river water by HPLC/Q-TOF-MS

Three preconcentration techniques including solid phase extraction (SPE), dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME) and stir-bar sorptive extraction (SBSE) have been optimized and compared for the analysis of six hypolipidaemic statin drugs (atorvastatin, fluvastatin, lovastatin, pravastatin, rosuvastatin and simvastatin) in wastewater and river water samples by high performance liquid chromatography coupled to quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (HPLC/Q-TOF-MS). Parameters that affect the efficiency of the different extraction methods such as solid phase material, sample pH and elution solvent in the case of SPE; the type and volume of the extracting and dispersive solvent, pH of sample, salt addition and number of extraction steps in the case of DLLME; and the stirring time, pH of sample, sample volume and salt addition for SBSE were evaluated. SPE allowed the best recoveries for most of the analytes. Pravastatin was poorly extracted by DLLME and could not be determined. SBSE was only applicable for lovastatin and simvastatin. However, despite the limitations of having poorer recovery than SPE, DLLME and SBSE offered some advantages because they are simple, require low organic solvent volumes and present low matrix effects. DLLME required less time of analysis, and for SBSE the stir-bar was re-usable. SPE, DLLME and SBSE provided method detection limits in the range of 0.04-11.2 ng L⁻¹, 0.10-17.0 ng L⁻¹ for 0.52-2.00 ng L⁻¹, respectively, in real samples. To investigate and compare their applicability, SPE, DLLME and SBSE procedures were applied to the detection of statin drugs in effluent wastewater and river samples.     

Quantification and application of a liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometric method for the determination of WKYMVm peptide in rat using solid‐phase extraction

A liquid chromatographic–electrospray ionization–time‐of‐flight/mass spectrometric (LC‐ESI‐TOF/MS) method was developed and applied for the determination of WKYMVm peptide in rat plasma to support preclinical pharmacokinetics studies. The method consisted of micro‐elution solid‐phase extraction (SPE) for sample preparation and LC‐ESI‐TOF/MS in the positive ion mode for analysis. Phenanthroline (10 mg/mL) was added to rat blood immediately for plasma preparation followed by addition of trace amount of 2 m hydrogen chloride to plasma before SPE for stability of WKYMVm peptide. Then sample preparation using micro‐elution SPE was performed with verapamil as an internal standard. A quadratic regression (weighted 1/concentration²), with the equation y = ax² + bx + c was used to fit calibration curves over the concentration range of 3.02–2200 ng/mL for WKYMVm peptide. The quantification run met the acceptance criteria of ±25% accuracy and precision values. For quality control samples at 15, 165 and 1820 ng/mL from the quantification experiment, the within‐run and the between‐run accuracy ranged from 92.5 to 123.4% with precision values ≤15.1% for WKYMVm peptide from the nominal values. This novel LC‐ESI‐TOF/MS method was successfully applied to evaluate the pharmacokinetics of WKYMVm peptide in rat plasma.     

Graphene as Solid-Phase Extraction Adsorbent for CZE Determination of Sulfonamide Residues in Meat Samples

A solid-phase extraction (SPE) using graphene as adsorbent coupled with capillary zone electrophoresis method was developed for the determination of four sulfonamide residues (sulfadimidine, sulfadimethoxine, sulfathiazole and sulfadiazine) in meat sample. Several condition parameters, such as elution solvents and volumes, sample pH and sample volume were optimized to obtain high SPE recoveries and extraction efficiency. Intra-day precisions of sulfonamides were in the range of 2.5–2.6 % and the inter-day precisions of sulfonamides were in the range of 2.6–3.4 %. Recoveries were 60.9–66.6 % for sulfadiazine and 86.1–111.4 % for other three sulfonamides in spiked meat sample. The developed method was successfully applied for the determination of sulfonamides in meat samples.     

固相萃取-高效液相色谱法测定水中BPA、NP和OP含量

采用国产新型D4020大孔吸附树脂自制固相萃取柱,研究了柱长、上样速度、样品溶液的pH、盐浓度等因素对壬基酚、辛基酚和双酚A吸附率的影响,确定了最佳固相萃取条件,建立了固相萃取-高效液相色谱测定水中痕量壬基酚、辛基酚和双酚A的分析方法.该法双酚A、壬基酚和辛基酚的检出限分别为0.432 μg/L、0.998 μg/L和1.336 μg/L,回收率为91%～96%,相对标准偏差(RSD)为1.5%～5.6%.方法简便快速、成本低廉,灵敏度高,准确度好,用于实际水样分析,取得满意结果.     

Occurrence of residual water within disk-based solid-phase extraction and its effect on GC-MS measurement of organic extracts of environmental samples

Solid-phase extraction (SPE) is a widespread and powerful sample preparation technique in many analytical areas. Many of the used methods reduce residual water during sample preparation by drying the phase material. Despite the importance of this step, hardly any study deals specifically with the drying process, and if so, only few aspects are mentioned. The present study is the first systematic investigation of the drying process using SPE disks, including the influence of process parameters on the amount of residual water and its consequences for subsequent elution and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. The following points were investigated in detail: (1) the change of pressure and volume flow during the drying process, (2) the remaining amount of water at different drying times for different SPE materials, (3) the influence of suspended particulate matter on the drying process and (4) the effects of the residual water on the elution step by using different organic solvents. The study shows that the volume of residual water in the SPE disk is affected by the fixation of the sorbent, the phase material, the amount of sorbent, the pumping settings and the duration of the drying process. Furthermore, systematic investigations demonstrate the influence of residual water on the GC-MS analysis and show analytical interferences only for a few of the investigated analytes. All results suggest that more problems in SPE GC-MS methods are caused by residual water than previously assumed.     

A (−)‐norephedrine‐based molecularly imprinted polymer for the solid‐phase extraction of psychoactive phenylpropylamino alkaloids from Khat (Catha edulis Vahl. Endl.) chewing leaves

A molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) was prepared using (?)‐norephedrine as the template, methacrylic acid as the functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as the cross‐linker and chloroform as the porogen. The MIP was used as a selective sorbent in the molecularly imprinted solid‐phase extraction (MIP‐SPE) of the psychoactive phenylpropylamino alkaloids, norephedrine and its analogs, cathinone and cathine, from Khat (Catha edulis Vahl. Endl.) leaf extracts prior to HPLC‐DAD analysis. The MIP was able to selectively extract the alkaloids from the aqueous extracts of Khat. Loading, washing and elution of the alkaloids bound to the MIP were evaluated under different conditions. The clean baseline of the Khat extract obtained after MIP‐SPE confirmed that a selective and efficient sample clean‐up was achieved. Good recoveries (90.0–107%) and precision (RSDs 2.3–3.2%) were obtained in the validation of the MIP‐SPE‐HPLC procedure. The content of the three alkaloids in Khat samples determined after treatment with MIP‐SPE and a commercial Isolute C₁₈ (EC) SPE cartridge were in good agreement. These findings indicate that MIP‐SPE is a reliable method that can be used for sample pre‐treatment for the determination of Khat alkaloids in plant extracts or similar matrices and could be applicable in pharmaceutical, forensic and biomedical laboratories. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

固相萃取/气相色谱-质谱法测定玩具中10种有机物的迁移量

建立了玩具中10种有机物迁移量的固相萃取/气相色谱-质谱测定方法。样品在25 mL去离子水中迁移60min,得到的迁移液流经Chromabond Easy固相萃取柱,用乙酸乙酯洗脱5次,每次1 mL。洗脱液过滤膜后通过60m DB-624色谱柱分离,质谱进行检测,外标法定量。方法对于不同有机物的定量限(LOQ)在0.0...     

Performance of an ultra-low elution-volume 96-well plate: drug discovery and development applications

Recently, sample preparation has been considered to be the major cause of bottlenecks during high-throughput analysis. With the assistance of robotic liquid handlers and the 96-well plate format, more samples can be prepared for subsequent liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) analysis. Protein precipitation is still widely used despite potential loss of sensitivity or variable results due to ion suppression. The use of solid-phase extraction (SPE) clearly gives superior results but may not be as cost effective as protein precipitation due to the labor and material costs associated with the process. Here, a novel 96-well SPE plate is described that was designed to minimize the elution volume required for quantitative elution of analytes. The plate is packed with 2 mg of a high-capacity SPE sorbent that allows loading of up to 750 microL of plasma, while the novel design permits elution with as little as 25 microL. Therefore, the plate offers up to a 15-fold increase in sample concentration. The evaporation and reconstitution step that is typically required in SPE is avoided due to the concentrating ability of the plate. Examples of applications in drug discovery/development are shown and results are compared to protein precipitation. Excellent sensitivity and linearity are demonstrated.     

A simplified protein precipitation/mixed-mode cation-exchange solid-phase extraction, followed by high-speed liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry, for the determination of a basic drug in human plasma

A simplified protein precipitation/mixed-mode cation-exchange solid-phase extraction (PPT/SPE) procedure has been investigated. A mixture of acetonitrile and methanol along with formic acid was used to precipitate plasma proteins prior to selectively extracting the basic drug. After vortexing and centrifugation, the supernatants were directly loaded onto an unconditioned Oasis MCX microElution 96-well extraction plate, where the protonated drug was retained on the negatively charged sorbent while interfering neutral lipids, steroids or other endogenous materials were washed away. Normal wash steps were deemed unnecessary and not used before sample elution. The sample extracts were analyzed under both conventional and high-speed liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) conditions to examine the feasibility of the PPT/SPE procedure for human plasma sample clean-up. For the conventional LC/MS/MS method, chromatographic separation was achieved on a C18, 2.1 x 50 mm column with gradient elution (k' = 5.5). The mobile phase contained 0.1% formic acid in water and 0.1% formic acid in acetonitrile. For the high-speed LC/MS/MS method, chromatographic separation was achieved on a C18, 2.1 x 10 mm guard column with gradient elution (k' = 2.2, Rt = 0.26 min). The mobile phase contained 0.1% formic acid in water and 0.001% trifluoroacetic acid in acetonitrile. Detection for both conventional and high-speed LC/MS/MS methods was by positive ion electrospray tandem mass spectrometry on a ThermoElectron Finnigan TSQ Quantum Ultra, where enhanced resolution (RP 2000; 0.2 amu) was used for high-speed LC/MS/MS. The standard curve, ranging from 0.5 to 100 ng/mL, was fitted to a 1/x weighted quadratic regression model.This combined PPT/SPE procedure effectively eliminated time-consuming sorbent conditioning and wash steps, which are essential for a conventional mixed-mode SPE procedure, but retained the advantages of both PPT (removal of plasma proteins) and mixed-mode SPE (analyte selectivity). The validation results demonstrated that this PPT/SPE procedure was well suited for both conventional and high-speed LC/MS/MS analyses. In comparison with a conventional mixed-mode SPE procedure, the simplified PPT/SPE process provided comparable sample extract purity. This simple sample clean-up procedure can be applied to other basic compounds with minor modifications of PPT solvents.     

Usefulness of the chaotropic effect in sample preparation for chromatographic analysis of acidic xenobiotics in human plasma

In this study a new RP‐HPLC with photo‐diode array detection method for the determination of ibuprofen ((RS)‐2‐(4‐isobutylphenyl)propionic acid) in human plasma samples was developed. Samples were prepared by SPE and analyzed by an isocratic elution mode over a C₁₈ column using 80% methanol. A novel sample pretreatment method, based on the addition of ionic liquids possessing chaotropic ions to small human plasma sample (100 μL), was elaborated. 1‐Butyl‐3‐methylimidazolium chloride and 1‐butyl‐3‐methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (BMIM BF₄) were tested from the point of view of extraction yield. Quantification was based on calibration curve applying diclofenac as the internal standard. Owing to dilution of plasma sample by 2 mM aqueous solution of BMIM BF₄ before SPE, appropriate sample purification and extraction yields higher than 95% with precision lower than 2% can be achieved. Linear coefficients of correlation (r²) were >0.99 in the range of 0.3–5 μg/mL ibuprofen concentration in plasma. The limit of quantification was 65 ng/mL and the detection limit for ibuprofen was 19.5 ng/mL.     

Preparation of functionalized magnetic nanoparticulate sorbents for rapid extraction of biphenolic pollutants from environmental samples

A new solid-phase extraction coupled with magnetic carrier technology was developed for extraction of bisphenol A (BPA) and diethylstilbestrol (DES) from water samples. The SPE sorbents, functionalized magnetic nanoparticles (Fe₃O₄@SiO₂/β-CD, core/shell), were synthesized in a two-stage system. The material was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and a vibrating sample magnetometer. SPE extraction parameters, such as volume and pH of sample, adsorption time, and desorption conditions were optimized. Under selected conditions: 250 mL of water sample, 0.1 g of sorbents and elution with methanol (3 mL with 1% acetic acid), the extraction was completed in 25 min. SPE followed by HPLC was employed to determine BPA and DES in environmental samples. The developed method provided spiked recoveries of 80–105%, relative standard deviations of less than 7%, and LOD of BPA (20.0 ng/L) and DES (23.0 ng/L), respectively. The proposed method offered easy preparation of sorbents, rapid analysis, high enrichment yields, and reliable quantitative assay.     

Macrocyclic polyamine‐functionalized silica as a solid‐phase extraction material coupled with ionic liquid dispersive liquid–liquid extraction for the enrichment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

In this study, silica modified with a 30‐membered macrocyclic polyamine was synthesized and first used as an adsorbent material in SPE. The SPE was further combined with ionic liquid (IL) dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction (DLLME). Five polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were employed as model analytes to evaluate the extraction procedure and were determined by HPLC combined with UV/Vis detection. Acetone was used as the elution solvent in SPE as well as the dispersive solvent in DLLME. The enrichment of analytes was achieved using the 1,3‐dibutylimidazolium bis[(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl]imide IL/acetone/water system. Experimental conditions for the overall macrocycle‐SPE–IL‐DLLME method, such as the amount of adsorbent, sample solution volume, sample solution pH, type of elution solvent as well as addition of salt, were studied and optimized. The developed method could be successfully applied to the analysis of four real water samples. The macrocyclic polyamine offered higher extraction efficiency for analytes compared with commercially available C₁₈ cartridge, and the developed method provided higher enrichment factors (2768–5409) for model analytes compared with the single DLLME. Good linearity with the correlation coefficients ranging from 0.9983 to 0.9999 and LODs as low as 0.002 μg/L were obtained in the proposed method.     

Automated on-line-solid-phase extraction—high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection of phenolic compounds in sherry wine

A new analytical method has been developed for sample preconcentration and analysis of phenolic compounds in sherry wine using on-line solid-phase extraction(SPE)-HPLC-diode array detection. The samples of wine were injected and adsorbed onto polystyrene divinylbenzene cartridges; a robotic semiflexible system was used to automate the SPE stage. Chromatographic separation was carried out in a Symmetry C₁₈ steel cartridge, with a two-step elution gradient. Peaks were identified by comparing their UV spectra with the library of spectra compiled by the authors.