Liquid-Phase Microextraction in a Single Drop of Organic Solvent by Using a Conventional Microsyringe

Abstract

Two modes of liquid-phase microextraction (LPME) were developed for capillary gas chromatography. Both methodologies, i.e., static LPME and dynamic LPME, involve the use of very small amounts of organic solvent (<2 μL) in a conventional microsyringe. The performance of the two techniques is demonstrated in the determination of two chlorobenzenes extracted into a single drop of toluene by the use of a 10-μL syringe. Static LPME provided some enrichment (∼12-fold), good reproducibility (9.7%), and simplicity but suffered relatively long extraction time (15 min). Dynamic LPME provided higher (∼27-fold) enrichment within much shorter extraction time (∼3 min), and relatively poorer precision (12.8%), primarily due to repeated manual manipulation. Both methods allow the direct transfer of extracted analytes into a gas chromatograph.