Direct fluid injection method

Hcxanc can be determined in biological fluids and tissues and breath using a variety of analytical methods. Representative methods are summarized in Table 6-1. Most methods utilize gas chromatographic (GC) techniques for determination of -hexane. The three methods used for preparation of biological fluids and tissues for analysis are solvent extraction, direct aqueous injection, and headspace extraction. Breath samples are usually collected on adsorbent traps or in sampling bags or canisters prior to analysis by GC. 

Good reproducibility has been reported for capillary supercritical fluid chromatography using a direct injection method without a split restrictor. This method (Fig. 1.2(b)) utilises a rapidly rotating internal-loop injector (Valeo Inst. Switzerland) which remains in-line with the column for only a short period of time. This then gives a reproducible method of injecting a small fraction of the loop into the column. For this method to be reproducible the valve must be able to switch very rapidly to put a small slug of sample into the column. To attain this a method called timed-split injection was developed (Lee Scientific). For timed split to operate it is essential that helium is used to... 

An effective method to increase the efficiency of a fluid drive is to plug the thief zone(s), direct fluids to areas of higher oil saturation and thus improve the ratio of oil produced to fluid injected. Emulsions have been shown to be effective permeability modification agents, but little work has been reported on their use. 

There are basically three methods of liquid sampling in GC direct sampling, solid-phase extraction and liquid extraction. The traditional method of treating liquid samples prior to GC injection is liquid-liquid extraction (LLE), but several alternative methods, which reduce or eliminate the use of solvents, are preferred nowadays, such as static and dynamic headspace (DHS) for volatile compounds and supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) and solid-phase extraction (SPE) for semivolatiles. The method chosen depends on concentration and nature of the substances of interest that are present in the liquid. Direct sampling is used when the substances to be assayed are major components of the liquid. The other two extraction procedures are used when the pertinent solutes are present in very low concentration. Modem automated on-line SPE-GC-MS is configured either for at-column conditions or rapid large-volume injection (RLVI). 

One of the attractive features of SFE with CO2 as the extracting fluid is the ability to directly couple the extraction method with subsequent analytical methods (both chromatographic and spectroscopic). Various modes of on-line analyses have been reported, and include continuous monitoring of the total SFE effluent by MS [6,7], SFE-GC [8-11], SFE-HPLC [12,13], SFE-SFC [14,15] and SFE-TLC [16]. However, interfacing of SFE with other techniques is not without problems. The required purity of the CO2 for extraction depends entirely on the analytical technique used. In the off-line mode SFE takes place as a separate and isolated process to chromatography extracted solutes are trapped or collected, often in a suitable solvent for later injection on to chromatographic instrumentation. Off-line SFE is inherently simpler to perform, since only the extraction parameters need to be understood, and several analyses can be performed on a single extract. Off-line SFE still dominates over on-line determinations of additives-an... 

The WAG process has been used extensively in the field, particularly in connection with supercritical CO injection and some success have been reported.(365-367). However, it would be desirable to develop a method to further reduce the viscosity of injected gas, particularly CO, the most commonly used gas (actually injected as a supercritical fluid) in the U.S.. While limited studies on increasing the viscosity of C0 though the use of supercritical CO -soluble polymers and other additives have been reported (368, see also Chapter 29 and references therein), the major direction of research has been the use of surfactants to form low mobility foams or supercritical C0 dispersions within the formation. 

Bergstrom et al. [63] used HPLC for determination of penicillamine in body fluids. Proteins were precipitated from plasma and hemolyzed blood with trichloroacetic acid and metaphosphoric acid, respectively, and, after centrifugation, the supernatant solution was injected into the HPLC system via a 20-pL loop valve. Urine samples were directly injected after dilution with 0.4 M citric acid. Two columns (5 cm x 0.41 cm and 30 cm x 0.41 cm) packed with Zipax SCX (30 pm) were used as the guard and analytical columns, respectively. The mobile phase (2.5 mL/min) was deoxygenated 0.03 M citric acid-0.01 M Na2HP04 buffer, and use was made of an electrochemical detector equipped with a three-electrode thin-layer cell. The method was selective and sensitive for mercapto-compounds. Recoveries of penicillamine averaged 101% from plasma and 107% from urine, with coefficients of variation equal to 3.68 and 4.25%, respectively. The limits of detection for penicillamine were 0.5 pm and 3 pm in plasma and in urine, respectively. This method is selective and sensitive for sulfhydryl compounds. 

Recently, most of the methods which have been used for the analysis of valproic acid in plasma, serum, cerebral spinal fluid, saliva, breast milk, and urine involve acidification of the biological sample, extraction into an organic solvent, and direct injection onto a gas-liquid chromatographic column (28, 29, 16, 30, 31, 32,... 

Alternatively, direct methods (syringe infusion, flow injection) can be used as a preliminary step in determining the optimal MS detector conditions for particular molecules. This is especially useful when the MS is attached to a liquid chromatograph, in which the fluid entering the MS will vary with gradient elutions (varied solvent and salt compositions) or with sample types (varied sample matrices, extraction solvents, included salts, etc.), which can affect the predominant ion type and sensitivity, or produce other matrix effects such as ion suppression or extraneous signals. 

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