Characteristics of immunosorbents used as a new approach to selective solid-phase extraction in environmental analysis

Summary The trace-level determination of organic pollutants in complex matrices is difficult and often not reliable because theccurrent extraction procedures are non-selective. New extraction sorbents involving antigen-antibody interactions, called immunosorbents (ISs), have been synthesised in order to trap a group of structurally related pollutants. The IS capacity is always high for the analyte-antigen used to make the antibodies, but can be low for some related compounds. In this work, we show the relationship that exists between capacity, break-through volume and recovery of analytes because of the competition between the structurally related compounds for antibody sites. Breakthrough due to the overloading of the column should be avoided because calibration curves are no longer linear. The capacity of two ISs, one made for trapping the triazine pesticide group and the second for the phenylurea, group, have been optimised by selecting silica with 50 nm pore size. Calibration curves are linear for all the compounds in a mixture of ten phenylureas up to a concentration of 5 to 10 μg L⁻¹ for each compound when handling 50 mL water samples through a precolumn packed with 0.22 g of IS. Under these conditions, reliable quantitative results are obtained because calibration curves are similar when compounds are alone or in a mixture. Application to the clean-up of soil extracts illustrates the high selectivity and the high potential of these new sorbents in environmental analysis. Presented at the 21^st ISC held in Stuttgart, Germany, 15^th–20^th September, 1996     

Analysis of organic pollutants in water at trace levels using fully automated solid-phase extraction coupled to high-performance liquid chromatography

Summary A method has been developed for the determination of trace levels of 32 pesticides, 19 explosives and 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in water in three individual steps. Solid-phase enrichment (SPE) is coupled to high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with a fully automated system. The organic pollutants are enriched on reusable cartridges packed with adsorbent materials: pesticides and explosives on a mixed bed of divinylbenzene-ethylvinylbenzene copolymers (LiChrolut EN^?) and perfluorinated polyethylene (PolyF^?), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons on C₁₈-modified silica (Zorbax^? ODS1). Thermally assisted desorption (TAD) has been shown to increase the recovery of analytes significantly. As all enriched analytes are transferred to the detector, only fifty millilitres of sample is needed for each single on-line analysis, compared with at least a litre for conventional methods. The separation of the enriched organic analytes is performed on specialized HPLC columns based on reversed-phase materials. The limits of detection of the system employed were found to be below 100 ng L⁻¹. Use of fluorescence detection for the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons resulted in limits of detection in the upper pg L⁻¹ range. Thek values, number of theoretical plates, the recovery rates and the limits of detection of this method for fast screening of organic pollutants from three fifty-millilitre aqueous samples are described. Presented at the 21^st ISC held in Stuttgart, Germany, 15^th–20^th September, 1996     

Headspace solvent microextraction A new method applied to the preconcentration of 2-butoxyethanol from aqueous solutions into a single microdrop

A new procedure and experimental setup for the headspace solvent microextraction of volatile organic materials from aqueous sample solutions is described. The extraction occurs by suspending a 3-μl drop of the solvent from the tip of a microsyringe to the headspace of a stirred aqueous sample solution for a preset extraction time. The temperature of the microdrop and the bulk of sample solution should be kept constant at optimized values. The sample analyses were carried out by gas chromatography. The procedure was successfully applied to the extraction and determination of 2-butoxyethanol from content of some color samples used for painting the outer coverage of some machines such as coolers, refrigerator, cloths machine, etc. Parameters such as extraction time, nature of extraction solvent, size of microdrop, sample volume, stirring rate, ionic strength and pH of sample solution were studied and optimized, and the method performance was evaluated.     

Solid-phase synthetic method for (±)-α-amino acids via phase-transfer catalytic alkylation

A solid supported glycineimine t-butyl ester was designed and successfully applied to the synthesis of (±)-α-amino acids. The phase-transfer catalytic alkylation, followed by acidic hydrolysis and benzoylation gave N-benzoyl-α-amino acid tert-butyl esters in high yields (up to 92%).     

HPLC Analysis of Cotinine in Urine After SPE with a Cholesterol-Modified Adsorbent

A one-step solid-phase extraction procedure, based on a new silica gel adsorbent modified with cholesterol groups, has been investigated for measurement of cotinine in urine. Cotinine is the main metabolite of nicotine in the human body and is analyzed as a biomarker for assessment of direct or passive exposure to tobacco smoke. New cholesterol-modified adsorbents have been obtained by chemical modification of silica gel of different porosity with cholesterol ligands. Although recovery by this extraction procedure were optimum over a relatively broad range of sample pH (3.1–8.0), analytical conditions such as sample loading, washing and elution conditions, concentration of cotinine to be extracted, and the type of adsorbent used for extraction were found to affect the efficiency of the procedure and had to be controlled for optimum recovery. When these conditions were controlled, recovery of cotinine from spiked human urine was reproducible and depended on compound ionization. Quantitative analysis of cotinine was performed by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with UV detection. Presented at: Conference of the Hyphenation of Liquid Chromatography–Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, Liquid Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry and Related Topics, Tuebingen, Germany, March 25–29, 2006.     

The use of solid sorbents for direct accumulation of organic compounds from water matrices–a review of solid-phase extraction techniques

The main principles of solid-phase extraction techniques are reviewed in this paper. Various solid sorbents can be used as a suitable trap for direct accumulation of organic compounds from aqueous solutions. The trapped analytes can be desorbed by elution with suitably chosen liquid phases. These preconcentration procedures can be considered as low performance liquid chromatography and the efficiency of the procedure can thus be related to the retention characteristics of the preconcentration column. The main sorbents used for trace enrichment purposes are also reviewed. Besides, the concise methodology, sample storage, and automation are discussed. The advantages of solid phase extraction as compared to liquid-liquid extraction are given as well as some drawbacks of this method.     

Detection of ethanol in human body fluids by headspace solid-phase micro extraction (SPME)/capillary gas chromatography

Summary Ethanol has been found extractable from human whole blood and urine samples by headspace solid-phase micro extraction (SPME) with a Carbowax/divinylbenzene-coated fiber. After heating a vial containing the body fluid sample with ethanol, and isobutanol as internal standard (IS) at 70°C in the presence of (NH₄)₂SO₄, a Carbowax/divinylbenzene-coated SPME fiber was exposed in the headspace of the vial to allow adsorption of the compounds. The fiber needle was then injected into a middle-bore capillary gas chromatography (GC) port. The headspace SPME-GC gave intense peaks for both compounds; a small amount of background noises appeared, but did not interfere with the detection of the compounds. Recoveries of ethanol and IS were 0.049 and 0.026% for whole blood, respectively, and 0.054 and 0.085% for urine, respectively. The calibration curves for ethanol showed excellent linearity in the range of 80–5000 mg L^–1 for whole blood and 40–5000 mg L^–1 for urine; the detection limits for both samples were 20 and 10 mg L^–1, respectively. The data on actual determination of ethanol after the drinking of beer are also presented for two subjects.     

Sampling and sample-preparation strategies based on solid-phase microextraction for analysis of indoor air

Applications of solid-phase microextraction (SPME) to the sampling and analysis of volatile organic compounds in indoor air are reviewed, including a summary of quantification methods, coatings, compounds, concentrations, sampling locations and times, and detection limits. Strategies for on-site and off-site sampling and analysis, advantages and challenges associated with SPME for air sampling are discussed.     

HPLC Method for Determination of Rosiglitazone in Plasma

A fast and sensitive high performance liquid chromatography method for quantitative determination of rosiglitazone in human plasma has been developed. The extraction from plasma was performed using solid-phase extraction (SPE) on C4 silica (100 mg) disposable extraction cartridges (DEC). The separation of rosiglitazone and two metabolites was achieved on a Phenomenex® Synergi 4 µm MAX-RP (150 × 4.6 mm) column, protected by a guard column. The mobile phase was 0.01 M ammonium acetate, pH 7.0 - acetonitrile (65:35, v/v). (3S)-3-OH-quinidine was used as internal standard. The analytes were detected using fluorescence detection. The method was validated. The limit of quantitation was 1 ng mL⁻¹ and the detection limit was 0.25 ng mL⁻¹ for rosiglitazone in human plasma. The recovery was 90% for rosiglitazone. Linearity was observed over a range of 1-1000 ng mL⁻¹ (r²=0.9959). The intra- and inter-day precision (C.V.) did not exceed 8.7 %. Applicability of the method was demonstrated by a clinical pharmacokinetic study. A healthy volunteer received in two separate phases 4 mg and 8 mg rosiglitazone maleate as a single oral dose. Plasma concentrations were measured for 24 h in both phases.     

分子印迹技术制备石油有机硫组分固相萃取剂的研究

用分子印迹技术合成了对石油有机硫组分二苯并噻吩(Dibenzothiophene，DBT)具有高效选择性的分子模板聚合物(Molecularly Imprinted Polymer，MIP)，通过静态吸附的方法研究了不同功能单体和致孔剂及其用量对模板聚合物特异性识别能力的影响．实验表明，以4-乙烯基吡啶(4-VP)为功能单体，在甲苯溶剂中聚合得到的固相萃取剂对DBT具有较大的吸附富集能力和识别特性．其饱和吸附容量达到48．3mg／g．