Sample Preparation

Researchers from IWW Water Centre (Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany) and University Duisburg-Essen (Duisberg, Germany) developed a solid-phase extraction (SPE) procedure using extraction disks in the analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in surface water samples.

Agilent Technologies (Santa Clara, California) announced that its Direct Drive Robot was named by the Association for Laboratory Automation as one of the top three outstanding new products at LabAutomation2009.

PerkinElmer (Waltham, Massachusetts) will become a distributor of purge-and-trap automated sample concentration systems from Teledyne Tekmar (Mason, Ohio) under terms of a reseller agreement.

Pickering Laboratories, Inc. (Mountain View, California) announced that it will be distributing a gel-permeation chromatography (GPC) instrument from LCTech GmbH (Dorfen, Germany) when it is released in the second quarter of 2009.

Researchers from the New Jersey Institute of Technology (Newark, New Jersey) prepared a micro solid-phase extraction (SPE) device consisting of carbon nanotubes packed in the needle of a syringe.

Researchers at the Munich Technical University and Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority have developed a comprehensive mycotoxin screening method based on the use of an LCTech GPC ULTRA gel permeation chromatography (GPC) instrument, which is distributed in North America by Pickering Laboratories (Mountain View, California) for sample cleanup before separation and detection.

A research group from the University of Valencia (Valencia, Spain) and the University of Alicante (Alicante, Spain) used ionic liquid?based single-drop microextraction followed by gas chromatography (GC) to analyze chlorobenzenes in real water samples.

Scientists from Xiamen University (Xiamen, China) employed solid-phase microextraction (SPME) with a carbon nanotube?coated fiber to analyze phenols in aqueous samples.

Researchers from the University of Murcia (Murcia, Spain) developed a sample pretreatment system based on solid-phase microextraction (SPME) followed by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry detection (GC?MS).

Researchers at Universidad Miguel Hernandez (Elche, Spain) analyzed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in aerosols using a thermal desorption gas chromatography?mass spectrometry (GC?MS) method.

LCGC (Chromatographyonline.com) has developed a pilot program with EARL (EARL2learn.com), the most extensive online library of interactive web-based learning material for analytical chemistry.

Ron Majors brings readers his yearly review of all that was new and innovative at the annual Pittsburgh Conference.

A review of the role of Solid-phase Microextraction (SPME) in quality control (QC) in the fish oil industry.

A research group from the Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry (Brno, Czech Republic) and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (Trebon, Czech Republic) combined solid-phase exraction (SPE) and supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) using an SPE cartridge incorporated in an SFE cell to extract benzoic acid and cinnamic acid derivatives from microalgae and cyanobacteria samples.

The American Filtration and Separations Society will be holding its 22nd Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition on May 4-7, 2009, at the Sheraton Hotel in Bloomington, Minnesota.

Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Beijing, China) and the University of Science and Technology of China (Hefei, China) used a two- and three-phase hollow-fiber liquid-phase microextraction method to determine aromatic amines in environmental water samples.

Researchers from Universita ?La Sapienza? (Rome, Italy) used a matrix solid-phase dispersion technique with hot water as the extracting solvent to extract seven quinolone antibacterial agents from egg samples.

Guest authors from South Africa review the application of membranes in the extraction, preconcentration, and separation of various contaminants in food.

Researchers from Sun Yat-sen University and South China Normal University (both in Guangzhou, China) developed a sample preparation method for extracting the beta-blockers propranolol, atenolol, pindolol, and alprenolol from human plasma and urine samples.

Researchers from Stockholm University (Stockholm, Sweden) and Nankai University (Tianjin, China) used a serial mixed-mode cation-exchange and anion-exchange solid-phase extraction (SPE) method to extract 15 basic, neutral, and acidic pharmaceutical compounds from wastewater.

A research group from the University of Tehran (Tehran, Iran) used dispersive liquid?liquid microextraction coupled with gas chromatography to determine compounds in rose water, which is the hydrosol portion of the distillate of rose petals.

Scientists from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (Uppsala, Sweden) and the University of Tabriz (Tabriz, Iran) developed a single-step solid-phase extraction (SPE) method to completely separate sterol oxidation products in food lipids.

Researchers from Universidad de Santiago de Compostela (Santiago de Compostela, Spain) developed a dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction sample preparation method to determine the antibacterial agent triclosan and its environmental transformation product methyl triclosan in water samples.

A research group from the South China University of Technology (Guangzhou, Guangdong, China) and the Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, Georgia) used a full evaporation headspace gas chromatography method to determine ethanol in fermentation liquor.

Researchers from the University of the Basque Country (Bilbao, Spain) have compared two extraction techniques as preparation methods for analyzing organic pollutants polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, phthalate esters, nonylphenols, polybrominated biphenyls, and polybrominated diphenyl ethers in water samples.

Researchers from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (Uppsala, Sweden) and the University of Tabriz (Tabriz, Iran) developed a solid-phase extraction method to separate sterol oxidation products in food lipids for analysis by gas chromatography (GC) and GC?mass spectrometry.

Pressure Biosciences, Inc. (South Easton, Massachusetts) has entered into an exclusive patent license agreement with the Battelle Memorial Institute (Columbus, Ohio.

Hypercrosslinked polystyrene-type (solid-phase extraction) SPE materials exhibit a unique ability to enter p-interactions with aromatic, heterocyclic and unsaturated compounds. This property permits selective extraction and pre-concentration of the above classes of species from non-polar media and fatty matrices. The principle has been exploited for developing analytical protocols to determine polar furan derivatives in mineral transformer oil, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in smoked fish and for the fractionation of polychlorinated aromatic compounds in environmental matrices.

Researchers at Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (Santa Maria, Brazil) and Centro de Pesquisas e Desenvolvimento Leopold Americo Miguez de Mello-CENPES/PETROBAS (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) analyzed chloride in petroleum coke samples using microwave-induced combustion followed by ion chromatography.

Researchers from National Chung Hsing University (Taichung, Taiwan) analyzed four chlorophenols in aqueous samples using purge-assisted headspace solid-phase microextraction (SPME) followed by gas chromatography?mass spectrometry (GC?MS).