Separation Science, in collaboration with its sponsors Agilent Technologies, Markes International and PerkinElmer, has developed an 'Advances in Environmental Analysis eSeminar'. This unique on-demand event brings together some of the leading exponents in the field of environmental analysis and provides an interactive learning environment for scientists working in this industry.
In this presentation Jonathan J. Grandy from the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada highlights the importance of intelligent sample preparation techniques to increase the sensitivity of on-site environmental analyses. Furthermore this work introduces the analytical power possible in the growing field of on-site analytical techniques and instrumentation.
Summary
Since its first introduction in 1989, solid-phase microextraction techniques have continually evolved in terms of architecture in order to further push down detection limits while maintaining a clean, portable and easy to handle design. With this portability in mind, the SPME fibre has been appropriately coupled with emerging miniaturized GC-MS technologies for on-site analytical application. However, such instruments lack the sensitivity of their benchtop counterparts while providing much less time to perform analytical extractions under the constraint of battery power.
To address these limitations the presented work establishes the on-site deployment and analysis of a novel thin film membrane (TFME) device coupled with portable GC-MS instrumentation. These new membranes were designed with a carbon mesh support that added a further extraction phase in addition to strengthening the otherwise flimsy, high cross-link density DVB/PDMS coating. When compared to standard SPME fibres, the membranes were shown to increase sensitivity by a factor of 20 or more allowing for the sub-ppb detection of a variety of aqueous pesticides in as little as 15 minutes on the portable GC-MS instrument. To even further increase extraction kinetics, the membranes could be attached to a modified power drill allowing agitation to be performed on-site. As a final proof of concept the first ever, entirely on-site TFME-GC-MS analysis was performed at a construction impacted lake detecting the presence of contaminants such as toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene, 2,2,4-Trimethyl-1,3-pentanediol diisobutyrate, and Tris(1-chloro-2-propyl)phosphate, which stood out from other, naturally occurring compounds.
By viewing this presentation you will learn...
- the importance of intelligent sample preparation techniques to increase the sensitivity of on-site environmental analyses
- the analytical power possible in the growing field of on-site analytical techniques and instrumentation
