Solid State Extraction
Solid state extraction is an extremely efficient method for isolating and concentrating solutes from relatively large volumes of liquid. This technique can be very effective, even when the solutes are present at extremely dilute concentrations (e.g. ppb). Materials extracted in this way can be used for subsequent chromatographic separation, spectroscopic examination, or biological assessment. The apparatus consists of a simple tube, which may be 2-4 mm I.D. and 2-4 cm long and is usually, but not necessarily, made from stainless steel or a suitably inert polymer. The extraction tube is usually packed with an appropriate bonded phase. The most effective for extracting dispersive materials (e.g. hydrocarbons, chlorinated hydrocarbons, pesticides etc) from water being long chain hydrocarbon bonded phases. This system can extract many liters of water (e.g. 2 l) if necessary and all the solutes accumulate at the front of the packing. The solutes can then be displaced from the adsorbent by 0.5 – 1 ml of methanol or acetonitrile (usually by reverse flow techniques to minimize extract dilution. The result would indicate a concentration factor of 2000-4000. Providing the right adsorbent is chosen, the extraction process can be very efficient, e.g.>99%. The choice of adsorbent can be quite critical. A contrasting example of the previous type of extraction would be the removal of polar materials (e.g. alcohols) from dispersive solvents (e.g. gasoline). This would best be achieved using a silica gel as the adsorbent, the alcohols being held on the adsorbent by strong polar interactions with the silica gel hydroxyl groups., Again the solutes might be desorbed with acetonitrile or an acetonitrile-water mixture
Author: RPW Scott
Book:Gas Chromatography
Section:YES Quantitative-Analysis
of
Book 18 but an example of one of the more complex sample preparation methods
will be given to illustrate some of the procedures that may be necessary.
Liquid
extraction is a clumsy procedure, particularly when used on the micro scale
which is often necessary in sample preparation. An alernative procedure is
solid phase extraction. The procedure is relatively simple and involves the use
of a short tube packed with an appropriate adsorbent such as silica, reversed
phase silica or, for some applications, macro porous polymer beads. The
adsorbent must be capable of removing the substances of interest from the
liquid medium. Extracting trace materials from water (e.g., pollution
analysis) a reversed phase would be appropriate. Then the substances could be displaced
into solvents such as n-hexane, methylene dichloride etc. A diagram of a simple
solid phase extraction tube is shown in figure 34
YES Quantitative-Analysis
Author: RPW Scott
Book:Gas Chromatography
Section:YES Quantitative-Analysis
This type of
extraction system is useful for biotechnology samples. An example of the use of
solid phase extraction to determine trace amounts (5 ppb) of some chlorinated
pesticides in drinking water is shown in figure 36. The extraction tube was
designated as the Novo-Clean C18. It was 47 mm tube long which included the
membrane manifold. The materials were removed from the water sample by
dispersive interactions between the solutes and the C18 reversed phase. The
tube was conditioned before use with 10 ml of methanol, 10 ml of
methyl-tributylether (MTBE), 15 ml of methanol and
YES Quantitative-Analysis
Author: RPW Scott
Book:Gas Chromatography
Section:YES Quantitative-Analysis
with an appropriate solvent, the sample diluted to a
known volume and an aliquot used for analysis. If necessary the extract can be
concentrated by evaporation and the total concentrate employed for analysis.
To avoid
breakdown of labile materials, a totally inert extraction apparatus can be
constructed from Teflon. A diagram of such an apparatus, produced by Alltech,
is shown in figure 35 which even includes a Teflon hypodermic needle.
Figure
35 An All–Teflon Solid Phase Extraction Apparatus
YES Quantitative-Analysis
Author: RPW Scott
Book:Principles and Practice of Chromatography
Section:Principles Applications Liquid-Chromatography
selectively removes the material of interest. The adsorbent is
then washed and the adsorbed material extract with a small amount of suitable
solvent and the solvent then inject onto the column.
An example of
the use of this technique is in the determination of tetrahydrocannabinol
carboxylic acid in urine. This substance appears in the urine of those subjects
that have recently smoked marihuana. The tetrahydrocannabinol carboxylic acid
can be extracted from the urine by means of a solid state extraction cartridge
packed with a C18 reverse phase (a strongly dispersive packing containing
bonded octyldecyldimethyl chains). The urine sample can be used direct, without
pretreatment and the materials of interest are irreversibly adsorbed on the
reverse phase solely by dispersive interactions. The actual procedure for
extracting the tetrahydrocannabinol carboxylic acid according to Supelco is as
a follows (1).
5 ml of urine
was diluted with 5 ml of water and
Principles Applications Liquid-Chromatography
Author: RPW Scott
Book:Principles and Practice of Chromatography
Section:Principles Applications Liquid-Chromatography
nbsp;
Courtesy of Supelco Inc.
Figure 42.
Chromatograms of Tetrahydrocannabinol Car-boxylic Acid from Urine
The
chromatograms obtained from a urine sample and a reference standard by this
procedure is shown in figure 42. This is a typical application for liquid
chromatography using a solid phase extraction cartridges. It is seen that the
tetrahydrocannabinol carboxylic acid is clearly and unambiguously separated
from the contaminating materials with an extraction efficiency of over 90%. The
chromatographic conditions were as follows.
Column
LC 18
Column Length
25 cm
Column Diameter
4.6 mm
Column Packing
C18 Reverse Phase, (octadecyldimethyl chain)
Mobile Phase
55% acetonitrile 45% aqueous 1% acetic acid
Flow-Rate
2.5 ml/min.
Detector
UV adsorption at 280 nm
Principles Applications Liquid-Chromatography
Author: RPW Scott
Book:Principles and Practice of Chromatography
Section:Principles Applications Liquid-Chromatography
Another
example employing a similar technique is the determination of the tricyclic
antidepressant drugs in blood serum (13). The solid phase adsorbent used in
this extraction is a weak ion exchanger and the material is preconditioned with
a wash of 0.5 ml of 0.5M phosphoric acid followed by 1 ml of deionized water. A
volume of 0.5 ml of the serum containing the tricyclic antidepressant drug
standards is mixed with 0.5 ml of deionized water and allowed to percolate
slowly through the packing. As in the previous example the drugs are held on
the ion exchanger whereas the sample matrix materials pass through. The packing
is then washed with 0.5 ml of 1.
Principles Applications Liquid-Chromatography