Solid-phase extraction advantages

Table 3.44 Characteristics of solid-phase extraction Advantages...

Table 7.7 Advantages of on-line solid-phase extraction-chromatography couplings...

Application of SPE to sample clean-up started in 1977 with the introduction of disposable cartridges packed with silica-based bonded phase sorbents. The solid phase extraction term was devised in 1982. The most commonly cited advantages of SPE over liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) as practiced on a macroscale include the reduced time and labor requirements, use of much lower volumes of solvents, minimal risk of emulsion formation, selectivity achievable when desired, wide choices of sorbents, and amenability to automation. The principle of operation consists of four steps (1) conditioning of the sorbent with a solvent and water or buffer, (2) loading of the sample in an aqueous or aqueous low organic medium, (3) washing away unwanted components with a suitable combination of solvents, and (4) elution of the desired compound with an appropriate organic solvent. 

Conventional radiochemical methods for the determination of long-lived radionuclides at low concentration levels require a careful chemical separation of the analyte, e.g., by liquid-liquid, solid phase extraction or ion chromatography. The chemical separation of the interferents from the long-lived radionuclide at the ultratrace level and its enrichment in order to achieve low detection limits is often very time consuming. Inorganic mass spectrometry is especially advantageous in comparison to radioanalytical techniques for the characterization of radionuclides with long half-lives (> 104 a) at the ultratrace level and very low radioactive environmental or waste samples. 

Despite the distinct advantages of pneumatic nebulizers, ultrasonic nebulizers may alternatively be used, in some instances, with success. In a recent application, a variation of ultrasonic nebulizer called spray nozzle-rotating disk FTIR interface was successfully applied to confirm the presence of methyltestosterone, testosterone, fluoxymesterone, epitestosterone, and estradiol and testosterone cyp-ionate in urine, after solid-phase extraction and reversed-phase LC separation (151). Using a commercial infrared microscopy spectrometer, usable spectra from 5 ng steroid deposits could be readily obtained. To achieve success with this interface, phosphate buffers in the mobile phase were not used because these nonvolatile salts accumulate on the collection disk and their spectra tend to swamp out small mass deposits. Another limitation of the method was that only nonvolatile analytes could be analyzed because volatile compounds simply evaporated off the collection-disk surface prior to scanning. 

A fourth conclusion, based on the advantages of the use of solid adsorbents, is the gradual replacement of solvent extractions with solid phase extractions. The movement toward this replacement is already evidenced by the commercial availability of several different cartridges of bonded phases and high-surface-area synthetic polymers. 

Actually, solid-phase extraction is used not only as a rough preliminary fractionation procedure. Prieto et al. described the complete fractionation of the total lipids from wheat into eight neutral lipid, two glycolipid, and four phospholipid classes in addition to PC and LPC, TV-acyl PE and A-acyl LPE were detected (37). However, two separate stationary phases (silica and aminopropyl) as well as seven different mobile phases were needed. Moreover, 14% crosscontamination of PC and LPC was observed, and the recovery of the phospholipids was limited to about 85%. Hence, SPE is a rapid and efficient technique for preliminary fractionation, but loses its advantages if more complex separations are tried. 

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