Do You Know Non-Sieve SPE Cartridges?

SPE is typically a sample preparation technique that uses chemical particles and chromatographic packing materials contained in a core-type device to chemically separate different components of a sample. Samples are almost always liquid, but special applications may use some of the samples in the gas phase. Figure 1 shows that a sample (shown in black) is being processed using an SPE device to separate each dye component that makes up the sample by chromatographic analysis.

A chromatographic bed can be used to separate different components in a sample, making subsequent analytical testing more successful. For example, SPE is commonly used to selectively remove interferents.

The exact name given to this technique from a technical point of view should be “liquid phase-solid phase extraction”; this is because the chromatographic particles are solid and the sample is in a liquid state. The basic chromatographic principle of liquid chromatography used here is the same as that of high-performance liquid chromatography, except that the form of use differs from the cause of use. Chromatography is used here to better prepare samples before they are submitted for analytical testing.

In terms of sample preparation, the source of the sample is very broad. They may be biological samples (eg plasma, saliva or urine), environmental samples (eg water, air or soil), foods (eg cereals, meat, and seafood), pharmaceuticals, nutritional supplement foods, beverages or industrial products. Even the head of a mosquito can be a sample! When scientists need to analyze neuropeptides extracted from the brains of mosquitoes, SPE is the preferred method of sample preparation

SPE (Solid Phase Extraction) solid-phase extraction is a popular pretreatment method for purifying liquid samples with solid adsorbents. Typically, SPE is used for purification, constant enrichment, desalination, derivatization, and separation prior to quantification by chromatography or other analytical methods.

What are the advantages of SPE compared to traditional LLE?
The effects of SPE and LLE (liquid-liquid extraction) are similar. LLE is an immiscible liquid two-phase extraction, while SPE extracts substances from the liquid phase to solid phase adsorption. The characteristics of SPE over LLE are:

Do You Know Non-Sieve SPE Cartridges?