Microextraction Tech

Polymeric nanocomposites have demonstrated great potential as sorbents in analytical sample preparation. The polymeric domain usually provides the sorption ability while the nanometric element confers special properties (like magnetism) or improves the sorptive capacity introducing new interaction chemistries (different than those provided by the polymer) or increasing the superficial area of the nanocomposite. In a recent article published in Microchimica Acta by Prof. Bagheri and coworkers, a reference research group in this field, have outlined the use of dendrimeric nanocomposites as sorptive phases in solid-phase microextraction (SPME). Dendrimers are hyperbranched molecules with a multifunctional, homogeneous and spherical surface. They present multiple sites on the outer surface that may interact with the target analytes. PAMAM dendrimer ethylene diamine core, generation 0.  Source: chemspider.com Polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers can be obtained by a controlled and st

Microextraction is currently present in many analytical processes. Its advantages over conventional extraction approaches have been extensively pointed out and mainly refer to its simplicity and miniaturization while providing equal or even better analytical features. Also, the availability of the sorbents (carbon-based, silica, metallic, magnetic...), formats (fiber, capillary, powder, particles and membranes) and combinations among them make possible the processing of any sample-analyte binomial. A step forward in the development of novel sorbents phases is selectivity. Highly selective extractant allows to face the determination of the analytes in complex matrices such as biological fluids or food. Nickel foam The group of Prof. Zhang has proposed the synthesis and evaluation of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) that allows the selective extraction of floxacin from water and biological samples. We are all aware about the ability of such polymeric phases to selective rec

The use of natural products, or wastes from them, to fabricate sorptive phases is an interesting research line with green connotations. Ramzi and Farrokhzadeh have evaluated, in a recent article accepted for publication in Journal of Separations Science, the potential use of animal bone wastes in this context. From the chemical point of view, bones are inorganic/organic composite materials where the inorganic part is mainly composed by carbonated hydroxyapatite while collagen fibers comprise the main part, up to 90 %, of the organic material. "Electronic micrograph 10000 magnification of mineralized collagen fibers in bone" by Bertazzo S used under CC BY . Via wikipedia The proposed procedure for the fabrication of the coating is simple. Bone wastes are firstly grounded, cleaned and dried. The resulting solid is dispersed in a citric acid solution and heated for a defined period o time. Finally, the solid phase microextraction (SPME) support is immersed into the solu

The direct coupling of SPME with Mass Spectrometry (MS) analyzers has been investigated for more than 20 years. In fact, different strategies have been developed by several groups worldwide and most have been appropriately reviewed by Fang et al 1 and  Deng et al 2 . Given the wide diversity of SPME-MS couplings, it is difficult to categorize them based on one well-defined characteristic. Following a similar approach to the one suggested by Venter et al 3 , one could classify SPME-MS couplings according to the desorption mechanism: solvent 4,5 , thermal 6,7 or laser desorption 8 . Herein, I present a brief summary of the most recent developments on SPME-MS techniques that utilize liquid desorption. Essentially, this field can be divided in three sub-categories: direct-desorption from the extraction substrate 9–11 , desorption into an elution chamber 12 , or desorption into a smaller compartment with efficient ionization (nano-electrospray emitter) 5,13 . As the first category is p