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.     

Modular Breath Analyzer (MBA): Introduction of a Breath Analyzer Platform Based on an Innovative and Unique,Modular eNose Concept for Breath Diagnostics and Utilization of Calibration Transfer Methods in Breath Analysis Studies

Exhaled breath analysis for early disease detection may provide a convenient method for painless and non-invasive diagnosis. In this work, a novel, compact and easy-to-use breath analyzer platform with a modular sensing chamber and direct breath sampling unit is presented. The developed analyzer system comprises a compact, low volume, temperature-controlled sensing chamber in three modules that can host any type of resistive gas sensor arrays. Furthermore, in this study three modular breath analyzers are explicitly tested for reproducibility in a real-life breath analysis experiment with several calibration transfer (CT) techniques using transfer samples from the experiment. The experiment consists of classifying breath samples from 15 subjects before and after eating a specific meal using three instruments. We investigate the possibility to transfer calibration models across instruments using transfer samples from the experiment under study, since representative samples of human breath at some conditions are difficult to simulate in a laboratory. For example, exhaled breath from subjects suffering from a disease for which the biomarkers are mostly unknown. Results show that many transfer samples of all the classes under study (in our case meal/no meal) are needed, although some CT methods present reasonably good results with only one class.     

Determination of Pd,Rh, Pt,Au in road dust by electrothermal vaporization inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry with slurry sampling

Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry coupled with ultrasonic slurry sampling electrothermal vaporization (USS-ETV-ICP-MS) has been applied to determine Pd, Rh, Pt and Au in 0.5% m/v slurries of several road dust samples. 2% m/v ammonium pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (APDC) was used as the modifier to enhance the ion count. The influence of instrument operating conditions, slurry preparation and interferences on the ion count was reported. This method has been applied to the determination of Pd, Rh, Pt and Au in BCR 723 Road Dust and NIST SRM 2709 San Joaquin Soil reference materials and two road dust samples collected locally. The analysis results of the standard reference materials agreed with the certified values. Precision between sample replicates was better than 10% for all the determinations. The method detection limits estimated from standard addition curves were 0.9, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.4 ng g⁻¹ for Pd, Rh, Pt and Au, respectively, in original dust samples.     

Solid phase microextraction fills the gap in tissue sampling protocols

Metabolomics and biomarkers discovery are an integral part of bioanalysis. However, untargeted tissue analysis remains as the bottleneck of such studies due to the invasiveness of sample collection, as well as the laborious and time-consuming sample preparation protocols. In the current study, technology integrating in vivo sampling, sample preparation and global extraction of metabolites – solid phase microextraction was presented and evaluated during liver and lung transplantation in pig model. Sampling approaches, including selection of the probe, transportation, storage conditions and analyte coverage were discussed. The applicability of the method for metabolomics studies was demonstrated during lung transplantation experiments.     

Implementation of an adaptive umbrella sampling method for the calculation of multidimensional potential of mean force of chemical reactions in solution

We describe the implementation of an adaptive umbrella sampling method, making use of the weighted histogram analysis method, for computing multidimensional potential of mean force for chemical reaction in solution. The approach is illustrated by investigating the effect of aqueous solution on the free energy surface for the proton transfer reaction of [H(3)N-H-NH(3)](+) using a combined quantum mechanical and molecular mechanical AM1/TIP3P potential.     

Determination of zinc in marine/lacustrine sediments by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry using Pd/Mg chemical modifier and slurry sampling

Effectiveness of Pd/Mg chemical modifier for the accurate direct determination of zinc in marine/lacustrine sediments by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GF-AAS) using slurry samples was evaluated. A calibration curve prepared by aqueous zinc standard solution with addition of Pd/Mg chemical modifier is used to determine the zinc concentration in the sediment. The accuracy of the proposed method was confirmed using Certified Reference Materials, NMIJ CRM 7303-a (lacustrine sediment) from National Metrology Institute of Japan, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan, and MESS-3 (marine sediment) and PACS-2 (marine sediment) from National Research Council, Canada. The analytical results obtained by employing Pd/Mg modifier are in good agreement with the certified values of all the reference sediment materials. Although for NRC MESS-3 an accurate determination of zinc is achieved even without the chemical modifier, the use of Pd/Mg chemical modifier is recommended as it leads to establishment of a reliable and accurate direct analytical method. One quantitative analysis takes less than 15 minutes after we obtain dried sediment samples, which is several tens of times faster than conventional analytical methods using acid digested sample solutions. The detection limits are 0.13?µg?g^?1 (213.9?nm) and 16?µg?g^?1 (307.6?nm), respectively, in sediment samples, when 40?mg of dried powdered samples are suspended in 20?mL of 0.1?mol?L^?1 nitric acid and a 10?µl portion of the slurry sample is measured. The precision of the proposed method is 8–15% (RSD).     

Study of the Molecular Mobility in Polymers with the Thermally Stimulated Recovery Technique—A Review

Thermally stimulated recovery (TSR) is a non‐conventional mechanical spectroscopy technique that allows to analyse in detail the relaxation processes of polymeric systems in the low frequency region. This work reviews the main aspects and potentialities of this technique. The different kinds of TSR experiments that can be performed, global and thermal sampling (TS) experiments, are described and illustrated with several examples. Also, the different methods for the determination of the thermokinetic parameters (activation energy and pre‐exponential factor) of the thermal sampling (TS) procedure are explained and compared. In this context, the compensation phenomenon, which always appears in TSR results when the studies are performed in the glass transition region of a given system, is discussed. Examples of the application of this technique to different polymeric systems during the last 20 years are provided. An emphasis will be made on the analysis of the effect of crystallinity degree and crosslink density on the TSR response. A comparison between the results (characteristic times and activation energies) obtained by different techniques, namely TSR, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), is made.     

In-vial pyrolysis (PyroVial) with pre- and post-sample treatment combined with different chromatographic techniques

A new generic pyrolysis unit (PyroVial) is presented. Pyrolysis is carried out in a 2 mL autosampler vial placed in a XYZ robot for automated pyrolysis as well as for pre- and post-pyrolysis treatment of the sample. Analysis of the volatiles is performed by headspace analysis while the semi- and non-volatiles are extracted from the pyrolysate with an organic solvent. The features of the PyroVial are such that all chromatographic techniques can be applied. The pyrolysis unit is discussed in terms of its technical features and its performance is illustrated with applications including conventional pyrolysis, in situ and post-pyrolysis derivatization, reaction pyrolysis and catalytic cracking.     

High-dimensional model representations generated from low order terms--lp-RS-HDMR

High-dimensional model representation (HDMR) is a general set of quantitative model assessment and analysis tools for improving the efficiency of deducing high dimensional input-output system behavior. RS-HDMR is a particular form of HDMR based on random sampling (RS) of the input variables. The component functions in an HDMR expansion are optimal choices tailored to the n-variate function f(x) being represented over the desired domain of the n-dimensional vector x. The high-order terms (usually larger than second order, or equivalently beyond cooperativity between pairs of variables) in the expansion are often negligible. When it is necessary to go beyond the first and the second order RS-HDMR, this article introduces a modified low-order term product (lp)-RS-HDMR method to approximately represent the high-order RS-HDMR component functions as products of low-order functions. Using this method the high-order truncated RS-HDMR expansions may be constructed without directly computing the original high-order terms. The mathematical foundations of lp-RS-HDMR are presented along with an illustration of its utility in an atmospheric chemical kinetics model.