Emanuela Gionfriddo | Authors

Microextraction is an affordable solution for preventing “garbage in–garbage out” effects in one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) GC separations, by providing analyte preconcentration, interference removal, tuning of extraction coverage, and easy coupling to GC systems.

Separation science is an intriguing and challenging (yes, let’s admit it) interdisciplinary field. Many of our daily rituals depend on effective chemical separations.

It is important to develop analytical methods to detect crude MCHM components in environmental water samples. This article describes two microextractive methods based on solid-phase microextraction (SPME) in fibre format and thin film microextraction (TFME) that were developed and validated for 4-MCHM and other constituents of crude MCHM.

Crude (4-methylcyclohexyl)methanol (MCHM) is a chemical contaminant that must be monitored in fresh water environments, because of significant health risks to surrounding human populations. A new method for MCHM analysis was developed using solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and thin film microextraction (TFME) combined with GC–MS. Both methods achieved limits of quantitation lower than standard methods using SPE.