Micro SPE Using Carbon Nanotubes

Scientists from the New Jersey Institute of Technology (Newark, New Jersey) used micro solid-phase extraction (SPE) devices consisting of single- and multiwalled carbon nanotubes packed in the needle of a syringe for sampling, analyte enrichment, and sample introduction. They found that conventional C18 and self-assembled carbon nanotubes were not effective as sorbent phases, but packed beds of carbon nanotubes provided high extraction efficiencies and enrichment factors for polar compounds.