Coupled sample preparation

On-line coupled sample preparation/separation/iden-tification systems (e.g. SFE-GC, PFE/automated evaporation/HPLC). 

Integrated microfluidic devices have many advantages over conventional methods such as fast analysis time, small reagent and sample consumption, and less waste generation. In addition, they have the capability of integration, coupling sample preparation and analysis processes such as cell lysis, capillary electrophoresis (CE), and PCR. Therefore, integrated microfluidic devices enable hundreds of assays to be performed in parallel and in an automated manner. 

Gold is a useflil caUbration standard for this method (see Radioactive tracers). Whereas similar sensitivities can be achieved by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (qv), the latter requires more extensive sample preparation to overcome interference by other metals such as copper (64). 

The very low Hg concentration levels in ice core of remote glaciers require an ultra-sensitive analytical technique as well as a contamination-free sample preparation methodology. The potential of two analytical techniques for Hg determination - cold vapour inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (CV ICP-SFMS) and atomic fluorescence spectrometry (AFS) with gold amalgamation was studied. 

The complex of the following destmctive and nondestmctive analytical methods was used for studying the composition of sponges inductively coupled plasma mass-spectrometry (ICP-MS), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), electron probe microanalysis (EPMA), and atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS). Techniques of sample preparation were developed for each method and their metrological characteristics were defined. Relative standard deviations for all the elements did not exceed 0.25 within detection limit. The accuracy of techniques elaborated was checked with the method of additions and control methods of analysis. 

Although SFE and SFC share several common features, including the use of a superaitical fluid as the solvent and similar instrumentation, their goals are quite distinct. While SFE is used mainly for the sample preparation step (extraction), SFC is employed to isolate (chr-omatography) individual compounds present in complex samples (11 -15). Both techniques can be used in two different approaches off-line, in which the analytes and the solvent are either vented after analysis (SFC) or collected (SFE), or on-line coupled with a second technique, thus providing a multidimensional approach. Off-line methods are slow and susceptible to solute losses and contamination the on-line coupled system makes possible a deaease in the detection limits, with an improvement in quantification, while the use of valves for automation results in faster and more reproducible analyses (16). The off-line... 

On-line coupled LC-GC methods have been developed in food analysis for several reasons, i.e. lower detection limits can be reached, the clean-up is more efficient, and large numbers of samples can be analysed with a minimum of manual sample preparation in shorter times. 

In order to reduce or eliminate off-line sample preparation, multidimensional chromatographic techniques have been employed in these difficult analyses. LC-GC has been employed in numerous applications that involve the analysis of poisonous compounds or metabolites from biological matrices such as fats and tissues, while GC-GC has been employed for complex samples, such as arson propellants and for samples in which special selectivity, such as chiral recognition, is required. Other techniques include on-line sample preparation methods, such as supercritical fluid extraction (SFE)-GC and LC-GC-GC. In many of these applications, the chromatographic method is coupled to mass spectrometry or another spectrometiic detector for final confirmation of the analyte identity, as required by many courts of law. 

The coupling of supercritical fluid extraction (SEE) with gas chromatography (SEE-GC) provides an excellent example of the application of multidimensional chromatography principles to a sample preparation method. In SEE, the analytical matrix is packed into an extraction vessel and a supercritical fluid, usually carbon dioxide, is passed through it. The analyte matrix may be viewed as the stationary phase, while the supercritical fluid can be viewed as the mobile phase. In order to obtain an effective extraction, the solubility of the analyte in the supercritical fluid mobile phase must be considered, along with its affinity to the matrix stationary phase. The effluent from the extraction is then collected and transferred to a gas chromatograph. In his comprehensive text, Taylor provides an excellent description of the principles and applications of SEE (44), while Pawliszyn presents a description of the supercritical fluid as the mobile phase in his development of a kinetic model for the extraction process (45). 

The autosampler can accommodate over 100 samples, as well as relevant standard solutions. Such coupling can also address the preliminary stages of sample preparation (as dictated by the nature of the sample). The role of computers in electroanalytical measurements and in the development of smarter analyzers has been reviewed by Bond (7) and He et al. (8). 

The primary method for detecting methyl parathion and metabolites in biological tissues is gas chromatography (GC) coupled with electron capture (BCD), flame photometric (FPD), or flame ionization detection (FID). Sample preparation for methyl parathion analysis routinely involves extraction with an organic solvent (e g., acetone or benzene), centrifugation, concentration, and re suspension in a suitable solvent prior to GC analysis. For low concentrations of methyl parathion, further cleanup procedures, such as column chromatography on silica gel or Florisil are required. 

All previous discussion has focused on sample preparation, i.e., removal of the targeted analyte(s) from the sample matrix, isolation of the analyte(s) from other co-extracted, undesirable sample components, and transfer of the analytes into a solvent suitable for final analysis. Over the years, numerous types of analytical instruments have been employed for this final analysis step as noted in the preceding text and Tables 3 and 4. Overall, GC and LC are the most often used analytical techniques, and modern GC and LC instrumentation coupled with mass spectrometry (MS) and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) detection systems are currently the analytical techniques of choice. Methods relying on spectrophotometric detection and thin-layer chromatography (TLC) are now rarely employed, except perhaps for qualitative purposes. 

Specifically for triazines in water, multi-residue methods incorporating SPE and LC/MS/MS will soon be available that are capable of measuring numerous parent compounds and all their relevant degradates (including the hydroxytriazines) in one analysis. Continued increases in liquid chromatography/atmospheric pressure ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC/API-MS/MS) sensitivity will lead to methods requiring no aqueous sample preparation at all, and portions of water samples will be injected directly into the LC column. The use of SPE and GC or LC coupled with MS and MS/MS systems will also be applied routinely to the analysis of more complex sample matrices such as soil and crop and animal tissues. However, the analyte(s) must first be removed from the sample matrix, and additional research is needed to develop more efficient extraction procedures. Increased selectivity during extraction also simplifies the sample purification requirements prior to injection. Certainly, miniaturization of all aspects of the analysis (sample extraction, purification, and instrumentation) will continue, and some of this may involve SEE, subcritical and microwave extraction, sonication, others or even combinations of these techniques for the initial isolation of the analyte(s) from the bulk of the sample matrix. 

Many process mixtures, notably fermentations, require sample preconcentration, microdialysis, microfiltration, or ultrafiltration prior to analysis. A capillary mixer has been used as a sample preparation and enrichment technique in microchromatography of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in water.8 Microdialysis to remove protein has been coupled to reversed phase chromatography to follow the pharmacokinetics of the metabolism of acetaminophen into acetaminophen-4-O-sulfate and acetaminophen-4-O-glucu-ronide.9 On-line ultrafiltration was used in a process monitor for Aspergillus niger fermentation.10... 

Next, reductive amination (step 4 in scheme 1) was exchanged with copper catalyzed palladium coupling (step 2 in scheme 1). Atomic absorption analysis for palladium in RWJ-26240 samples prepared by scheme 2 indicated that the level of palladium was reduced to an acceptable level. This improvement may be due to the two reduction steps subsequent to the use of palladium in scheme 2.177 The final major modification to the reaction scheme was the substitution of NaBH4 for NaBH3CN. The yield of product (60%) was determined by HPLC (Method 2). Reductive alkylation with formalin/NaBH4 afforded a pharmaceutically acceptable drug substance. 

This chapter deals mainly with (multi)hyphenated techniques comprising wet sample preparation steps (e.g. SFE, SPE) and/or separation techniques (GC, SFC, HPLC, SEC, TLC, CE). Other hyphenated techniques involve thermal-spectroscopic and gas or heat extraction methods (TG, TD, HS, Py, LD, etc.). Also, spectroscopic couplings (e.g. LIBS-LIF) are of interest. Hyphenation of UV spectroscopy and mass spectrometry forms the family of laser mass-spectrometric (LAMS) methods, such as REMPI-ToFMS and MALDI-ToFMS. In REMPI-ToFMS the connecting element between UV spectroscopy and mass spectrometry is laser-induced REMPI ionisation. An intermediate state of the molecule of interest is selectively excited by absorption of a laser photon (the wavelength of a tuneable laser is set in resonance with the transition). The excited molecules are subsequently ionised by absorption of an additional laser photon. Therefore the ionisation selectivity is introduced by the resonance absorption of the first photon, i.e. by UV spectroscopy. However, conventional UV spectra of polyatomic molecules exhibit relatively broad and continuous spectral features, allowing only a medium selectivity. Supersonic jet cooling of the sample molecules (to 5-50 K) reduces the line width of their... 

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