On-line SPE

This paper deseribes a rapid and versatile on-line-SPE LC-MS/MS method developed for the determination of various pestieides and tlieir metabolites in water. 28 pestieides, ineluding various triazines, phenylureas, organophosphorous eompounds and other speeies, were seleeted for systematie investigations. 

Figure 2.12 Schematic representation of an on-line SPE-GC system consisting of three switching valves (VI-V3), two pumps (a solvent-delivery unit (SDU) pump and a syringe pump) and a GC system equipped with a solvent-vapour exit (SVE), an MS instrument detector, a retention gap, a retaining precolumn and an analytical column. Reprinted from Journal of Chromatography, AIIS, A. J. H. Eouter et al, Analysis of microcontaminants in aqueous samples hy fully automated on-line solid-phase extraction-gas chromatography-mass selective detection , pp. 67-83, copyright 1996, with permission from Elsevier Science.

Figure 6.4 Schematic diagram of an on-line SPE-SFE-GC system (from ref. 40) 1, carbon dioxide 2, high-pressure syringe pump 3, gas cliromatograph 4, tliree-poit valve 5, oven 6, extraction cell 7, waste 8, ten-port valve 9-11 conditioning and washing solvents 12, sample 13, niti Ogen.

Figure 11.5 Chromatograms of plasma samples obtained with fully automated on-line SPE-LC (a) dmg-ffee human plasma (b) human plasma spiked with omeprazole (100 ng/ml) and phenacetin (internal standard 1000 ng/ml). Reprinted from Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis, 21, G. Garcia-Encina et al., Validation of an automated liquid chromatograpliic method for omeprazole in human plasma using on-line solid-phase exti action, pp. 371 - 382, copyright 1999, with permission from Elsevier Science.

In principle, on-line SPE-LC can be automated quite easily as well, for instance, by using Such programmable on-line SPE instrumentation as the Prospekt (Spark Holland) or the OSP-2 (Merck) which have the capability to switch to a fresh disposable pre-column for every sample. Several relevant applications in the biomedical field have been described in which these devices have been used. Eor example, a fully automated system comprising an autosampler, a Prospekt and an LC with a UV... 

LC-MS with on-line SPE using a RAM pre-column with an internal ODS phase was described by van der Hoeven et al. (95) for the analysis of cortisol and prednisolone in plasma, and arachidonic acid in urine. The samples were injected directly and the only off-line pretreatment required was centrifugation. By using the on-line SPE-LC-MS system, cortisol and related compounds could be totally recovered and quantified in 100 p.1 plasma within 5 min with a typical detection of 2 ng/ml (Figure 11.6(b)). The RAM-type of sorbents, in which the outer surface of the particles is covered with aj-acid glycoprotein, also appear to be useful for direct SPE of... 

On-line SPE-LC has been widely used in environmental analysis to solve the problems caused by the low concentrations of the analytes to be detected and also to automate the analysis (42-44). 

This set-up, or a very similar one, has been used to determine different group of pollutants in environmental waters (45, 83, 93). For example, with 10 ml of sample the limits of detection of a group of pesticides were between 2 and 20 ng 1 (92) in tap and river water, with this system being fully automated. Figure 13.19 shows the chromatograms obtained by on-line SPE-GC-MS under selected ion-monitoring conditions of 10 ml of tap water spiked with pesticides at levels of 0.1 pig 1 (92). 

Figure 13.19 Chromatograms obtained by on-line SPE-GC-MS(SIM) of (a) 10 ml of tap water spiked with pesticides at levels of 0.1 ng 1 (b) 10 ml of a sample of unspiked tap water. Peak identification foi (a) is as follows 1, molinate 2, a-HCH 3, dimethoate 4, simazine 5, ati azine 6, y-HCH 7, S-HCH 8, heptachloi 9, ametiyn 10, prometiyn 11, fen-itrothion 12, aldrin 13, malatliion 14, endo-heptachlor 15, a-endosulfan 16, teti achlor-vinphos 17, dieldrin. Reprinted from Journal of Chromatography, A 818, E. Pocumll et al., On-line coupling of solid-phase exti action to gas cliromatography with mass specti ometiic detection to determine pesticides in water , pp. 85-93, copyright 1998, with permission from Elsevier Science.

Y. Pico, J. J. Vreuls, R. T. Ghijsen and U. A. Th Brinkman, Drying agents for- water-free intr-oduction of desorption solvent into a GC after on-line SPE of aqueous samples , Chromatogmphia 38 461-469 (1994). 

Crescenzi et al. developed a multi-residue method for pesticides including propanil in drinking water, river water and groundwater based on SPE and LC/MS detection. The recoveries of the pesticides by this method were >80%. Santos etal. developed an on-line SPE method followed by LC/PAD and LC/MS detection in a simultaneous method for anilides and two degradation products (4-chloro-2-methylphenol and 2,4-dichlorophenol) of acidic herbicides in estuarine water samples. To determine the major degradation product of propanil, 3,4-dichloroaniline, the positive ion mode is needed for atmospheric pressure chemical ionization mass spectrometry (APCI/MS) detection. The LOD of 3,4-dichloroaniline by APCI/MS was 0.1-0.02 ng mL for 50-mL water samples. 

The most widely employed techniques for the extraction of water samples for triazine compounds include liquid-liquid extraction (LLE), solid-phase extraction (SPE), and liquid-solid extraction (LSE). Although most reports involving SPE are off-line procedures, there is increasing interest and subsequently increasing numbers of reports regarding on-line SPE, the goal of which is to improve overall productivity and safety. To a lesser extent, solid-phase microextraction (SPME), supercritical fluid extraction (SEE), semi-permeable membrane device (SPMD), and molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) techniques have been reported. 

Immunosorbents have also found applicability in on-line SPE analysis. An antibody is immobilized on to a silica support and used as an affinity ligand to retain targeted analytes. Components not recognized by the antibody are not retained and some degree of selectivity is attained. Recoveries of 87-103% were obtained for atrazine, simazine, DEA, propazine, and terbuthylazine at the 0.2 xgL concentration level when using immunosorbent SPE (80 mg silica and 2 mg anti-atrazine and anti-chlortoluron antibodies) on-line with LC/APcI-MS however, this method is not applicable to DIA (0% recovery). This compound may be better retained when using an... 

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). 

Benefits of on-line SPE include elimination of eluate collection, evaporation, and processing in a completely closed system with protection from contact with hazardous solvents, light and oxygen. On-line SPE offers ruggedness, excellent precision and high sample throughput, and is ideally suited to perform a fast matrix-analyte separation prior to e.g. LC-MS or direct MS analysis. 

The inherent advantages of on-line SPE-GC for the analysis of aqueous samples are well known [66] and comprise the use of an integrated and closed system in which the SPE extract is transferred from the sample preparation module to the autosampler via an autosampler vial. 

A recent extension of the scope of SPE-GC and SPE-GC-MS concerns the use of AED detection with its multielement detection capability and unusually high selectivity. Hankemeier [67] has described on-line SPE-GC-AED with an on-column interface to transfer 100 iL of desorbing solvent to the GC. The fully on-line set-up is characterised by detection limits of 5-20 ngL because of quantitative transfer of the analytes from the SPE to the GC module. On-line coupling of SPE with GC is more delicate than SPE-LC, because of the inherent incompatibility between the aqueous part of the SPE step and the dry part of the GC system. 

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