In-cell moisture removal

Sample drying can be accomplished in several ways such as air drying and oven drying before extraction. Flowever, these approaches are not suited when analysing volatile or seml-volatlle components as they would be removed from the sample before extraction or analysis. The In-cell method can remove moisture when the wet sample Is mixed with a water absorbing polymer (Ullah et al 2012). 

Another common method for moisture removal is by using salts such as sodium sulfate, calcium chloride, magnesium sulfate, calcium sulfate and the like. These salts tend to associate to water molecules to form hydrated salts. Sodium sulfate, for example, tends to clump together when water is present. Sodium sulfate is not suitable for in-cell moisture removal and extraction in ASE. Sodium sulfate can dissolve in hot solvent to a certain extent and can precipitate downstream in 

Typically, a water-absorbent polymer is applied comprising a copolymer of a basic monomer with an acidic monomer. This combination is suitable for moisture removal under high ionic strength conditions. Results also demonstrate that when the polymer is mixed with diatomaceous earth (DE), absorbent the water-removal efficiency increases significantly. Water-removal efficiency increases significantly due to improved flow characteristics. 

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